Upsurge in VIP security sanctions; CISF unable to comply due to manpower shortage

NEW DELHI: There has been an upsurge in VIP security sanctions since home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde took over, prompting the Central Industrial Security Force to decline compliance with ministry directives to provide cover to, among others, RSS chief MohanBhagwat.

CISF, which has received over a dozen such directives from the MHA over the past six months, cited the shortage of manpower for not complying with the MHA directive on October 17, while declining the RSS chief’s Z-plus security, which entails a cover of 36 policemen with three escort and pilot vehicles across the country.

The paramilitary force, which, along with CRPF and ITBP, provides special security cover to VIPs, has similarly not acted upon directives to guard Congress leader Sajjan Kumar with a Z-plus security cover and slain Punjab chief minister Beant Singh’s grandson and Member of Parliament Ravneet Singh with a Z-level cover.

It is also yet to comply with another directive of the home ministry, to upgrade the cover of steel minister Beni Prasad Verma to Z-plus from Z-level security.

Shinde set the ball rolling by acquiring a Z-plus cover from Delhi Police within a fortnight of taking over last August, while his MoS RPN Singh took three months to get Z-level security, which comes with 11 policemen and one escort vehicle.

“Security will be given where risk of life is there,” Shinde said, explaining the rationale behind the home ministry’s directives.

The spate of approvals has, however, forced CISF not to take over security provided to Mohan Bhagwat by Maharashtra Police and to Sajjan Kumar by Delhi Police. The force has nonetheless acceded to the directive to provide Z-level security to former foreign minister SM Krishna.

Since last October, it has also been providing not just Z-plus security to Akali Dal’s former MLA Manjinder Singh Kang but also personal security officers for his wife, mother and children.

CISF has also been providing since December Y-level security, which comes with two personal security officers, to RS Yadav, who has several criminal cases pending against him and unsuccessfully fought on a Congress t icket against Raja Bhaiya from Kunda in the 2012 assembly polls in UP. A similar cover has been provided to BSP MP Seema Upadhyay, wife of a former BSP minister.

Even a petrol pump owner, Haji Haroon Rashid, and an MLA, Mohd Muslim, from Congress boroughs of Rae Bareilly and Amethi in UP managed to acquire CISF’s Y-level security cover from the MHA last December.

The home ministry also secured a Z-plus cover for Rajya Sabha member Brajesh Pathak from Unnao, who has a criminal history, from the CISF in January, just as it had last September restored the X-category cover provided to Dinesh Pratap Singh, a Congress councillor in Rae Bareilly.