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Security
scam The posse of policemen escorting the puffed up VIP, a commissioner-rank officer in Lucknow, looks exasperated. One of them in particular. He has not only been tailing his master through the packed day but has had to run memsahib's chores in between as well. Not to mention dropping and picking up the children from school and tagging along with some of their close relatives to the market. If I am asked to bring vegetables from the mandi, I cannot afford to say no, he sighs. They would only get me transferred to the boondocks. They have all done it, all of them in the officers security cover, at one time or the other. Running errands for the officer and his family has almost become the norm in the household. And it's the case in most other VIP households in Uttar Pradesh. Politicians, bureaucrats and others who are influential not only make sure they are granted personal security---there are 1,400 of them in all--they often misuse it. Chief Minister Rajnath Singh is aware of what's going on. He has even gone public with a pledge to restore the dignity of the policemen, to ensure that they don't run their masters' personal chores, but that's about all he has done about it. With no concrete steps to keep such promises, Singh is only being accused of making the right noises to consolidate his image. To be fair, plucking out policemen from security and demeaning chores isn't easy for Singh. Most politicians employing police personnel are ministers in his Government or are MLAs belonging to his party, the BJP. Against a sanctioned strength of 1,000 police officials for personal security in the state, more than 8,000 policemen have been deployed in such roles. This has led to an alarming depletion in force levels, apart from the siphoning off of arms and ammunition. Assault rifles like the AK-47 have been sanctioned for personal security, whereas these sophisticated rifles were purchased by the state to counter terrorism in the Terai region. More than 60 per cent of the nearly 1,200 AK-47 rifles have been sanctioned to the guards for personal security of the VIPs, reveals a senior police official. He says despite repeated reminders for the withdrawal of the AK-47 from personal security, nothing has been done. Similarly, four-wheel vehicles bought by the state four years ago have also been diverted from night patrolling towards personal security. The upshot: highway crime has gone up. On an average we are spending Rs 12,000 a month on a police jawan deployed in personal security, discloses Naresh Dayal, principal secretary, Home Department. Normally, the threat perception for the person concerned is the basis for sanctioning state protection. But this has become the exception, rather than the norm. Even criminals are getting police protection in the state, xplains a senior police official, adding that of the 600 politicians getting state security, 266 have a criminal record. To add to the force's burden, the High Court too has asked the state Government to provide security to district judges and other members of the judiciary at the district level. Doctors in the state, protesting against the killing of two colleagues in the past three months in Lucknow, took out a massive procession, demaning security. It is a matter of great concern that the mafia is targeting medical officers, says Dr H.P. Kumar, chief medical officer, Lucknow. The process of granting police security on whimsical grounds started in the early 1980s with the Congress regime and by the 1990s, Mulayam Singh Yadav had opened the floodgates, alleges former state police chief Shri Ram Arun. Yadav himself asked for state protection for criminals.- Ram, as state police chief, had recommended the constitution of a separate battalion for VIP security but for reasons best known to the Government, the proposal was shot down. The chief minister says he is committed to withdrawing security in undeserving cases but the words have at best proved empty. Ask him about it and all he has to say is, "The process will start soon." Until then, the Uttar Pradesh Police will have to contend being a harassed lot. |
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