998 SSG personnel protecting 391 VIPs

A total of 998 security personnel of the special security group (SSG)  of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) are deployed to protect VIPs - mostly politicians and people who have held sensitive positions in the past in the country.

The information was given in the Rajya Sabha today by Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal. The minister said out of 1,200 trained personnel in the SSG, 23 were women.

The Delhi High Court had recently taken a grim view of the growing menace of VIP security saying it tends to disturbs the life of the common people.

According to the affidavit submitted by the government before the court, some 391 persons are given the status of "central protectees" based on high threat perception and hence entitled to security cover.  A majority of these VIPs have been given Y level security while others have Z level security.

The court, which termed VIP security "distasteful, obtrusive and obnoxious for the common people" had directed the union home ministry to inform it of steps taken in cases where security threats had been "overplayed", and if there were instances of security being downgraded.

The home ministry, in response, had claimed that it was "in the process of a comprehensive review of VIP security."

The court had asked the government to review the threat perception of these protectees periodically so that less number of gun-toting policemen are seen accompanying them in public places.

Ministry officials, however, confess that it is rarely that any VIP security is downdraged.

The court has asked the government to give safety cover only to people who have "security threats from the militants or terrorists."