Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Chief Secretary clarifies

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI NOV.12. The Chief Secretary, Lakshmi Pranesh, has clarified that the Joint Secretary, Union Home Ministry, Harminder Singh, wrote to her yesterday conveying that the Centre had decided to place the Central Industrial Security Force on the office premises of The Hindu and at the residence of its Editor-in-Chief, N. Ram.

In a statement, she said: "On receipt of this information, the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Selvi J. Jayalalithaa, had in her letter dated 11-11-2003 written to the Deputy Prime Minister of India indicating that such a move was totally unwarranted, given the perfect maintenance of law and order and peaceful atmosphere in the State. The Hon'ble Chief Minister had also brought to the notice of the Deputy Prime Minister of India that Mr. Ram had already been accorded security on the `X' scale by the State Government and that this has been in position right through. The Hon'ble Chief Minister had therefore suggested to the Deputy Prime Minister of India to rescind the direction to deploy Central Industrial Security Force at The Hindu office and for N. Ram.

"On 12-11-2003 at around 4 p.m., a letter was received by fax from the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India indicating that the State Government are requested to provide `Y' category of security to Mr. N. Ram and the Office of The Hindu would also be provided with static guard/security personnel from the Central Industrial Security Force.

"However, this was followed by another letter from the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, at around 6 p.m., informing the State Government that the Ministry has decided that Central Industrial Security Force personnel need not be deployed for providing `Y' category of security to Mr. N. Ram and the office premises of The Hindu."

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