25 leaders get Z plus security in J-K: Min

Twenty-five leaders of Jammu and Kashmir have been provided Z plus security in the state, the Legislative Council was informed here today.
"The state government is providing security to 1,278 Protected Persons (PPs) security in the shape of Personal Security Officer (PSOs), residential guards, vehicles, Hotel accommodation etc in Jammu and Kashmir," Minister for Hajj and Auqaf, Abdul Rehman Veeri, on behalf of the chief minister while replying to a question by Jugal Kishore in Legislative Council, said here today.
"Out of these, 25 were provided with Z plus, 396 with Z, 150 Y, 282 X and 425 with X-2 category security," he said.

The security wing of J-K Police is providing security cover to MLAs, MLCs, ex-ministers, ex-MLAs and ex-MLCs, political leaders, workers, bureaucrats and former bureaucrats in the state as per their entitlement strictly in accordance with the guidelines of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
"The security cover category of the protected persons is reviewed periodically by the Security Review Coordination committee (SRCC) constituted by the state government," he said.
"Keeping in view the sensitivity of the matter, it would not be appropriate to disclose the details of security cover being provided to or withdrawn from the differently protected persons," he said.

The monthly expenditure on account of security of these protected persons is Rs 10,88,53,460.75 per month (approx.), the minister said.
Giving the breakup, he said that Rs 5,56,07,721 are salary of PSOs, Rs 45,44,403.75 on account of fuel, Rs 47,30,495 on hotel accommodation and Rs 4,39,70,841 on residential guard, he said.
Supplementary questions were also raised by Ghulam Nabi Monga, Naresh Gupta, Sufi Yousuf and Vibodh Gupta. They cornered the government for failure to provide better mobile security vehicles to the legislators.