Over-protecting VIPs costing India dearly

SECURING INDIA OR VIPs? Rs 180 crore is being shelled out annually to provide Z-class security to VIPs.

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New Delhi: Despite the numerous terror strikes in India, the budget of counter-terrorism units has come down this year while the budget for the Special Protection Group, which protects VIPs, has gone up.

Rs 180 crore of the taxpayer's money is being shelled out annually to provide Z-class security to the PM, the Gandhi family, the leader of Opposition and a handful of other VVIP's .

The focus is so squarely on VIP protection that in Delhi alone, 15,000 men of the 60,000-strong Delhi Police are busy protecting around 400 VIPs.

In the 2008-09 the budget for the elite National Security Guards, was actually cut short to Rs 158 crore, from Rs 159 crore the previous year

But the budget for the Special Protection Group, which protects VIPs, went up from Rs 117 crore in 2007-2008 to Rs 180 crore in 2008-09.

Sources say that at least 30 per cent of the VIPs getting top security don't need any and 50 per cent can do with lighter security.

Home Minister P Chidambaram may have refused a Z security cover but his predecessor Shivraj Patil had no qualms about availing it.

There are other politicians who have said no to VVIP security in the past like Left leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and A B Barbhan, who shunned security, at times choosing to travel in their own cars.