Over 150 crore spent on president’s sentinel salary in four years

AGRA: In an RTI reply, office of deputy commissioner of police Rashtapati Bhawan had revealed that Rs 155.4 crore were spent during the past four years on the salary of the security personnel provided for the security of the president of India.

Replying to the questions filed by Lucknow-based activist Nutan Thakur, the DCP office claimed that for the financial year 2014-15, a total of Rs 38.17 crore were spent on the salary of sentinels deployed in president’s security, Rs 41.77 crore in 2015-16, Rs 48.35 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 27.11 so far in 2017-18.

During these four years, Rs 64.9 lakh were incurred for maintenance of the vehicles provided for the movement of sentinel. This included Rs 15.5 lakh in year 2014-15, Rs 20 lakh in 2015-16, Rs 21.8 lakh in 2016-17 and Rs 7.5 lakh so far in 2017-18.

The above expense did not include expenses of fuel for the vehicles as they are drawn from government fuel stations.

Citing security concerns, the office of the DCP, Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi refused to provide the details of total number of security personnel and government vehicles.