A closer scrutiny reveals how VIP culture is at its worst in Hyderabad with five policemen assigned to protect one VIP, whereas there is only one cop to protect 1,000 city residents. "Law and order is no longer a priority for the police force anymore as they are preoccupied with VIP duty," said a retired police officer.
"As a result, there is an increase in incidents of crime, from serious ones like murders and rapes to petty crimes like chain snatchings," he said.
Out of the 200 so-called VIPs stationed in Hyderabad, the City Security Wing (CSW) provides security to 120, including a few ministers, MLAs, MLCs, MPs and other important political leaders. The remaining VIPs are provided security by the Intelligence Security Wing. This does not include the personal security of MPs, ministers, MLAs and MLCs of other districts, as they are provided personnel by the respective district police.
Five police personnel are attached to each VIP, providing round-the-clock security at the taxpayers' expense. According to police records, there are about 13,000 police personnel in Hyderabad and Cyberabad and about 7,000 home guards in both the police districts who are sadly deployed as 'personal domestic helps' who run errands at the residences of senior police officials.
With another 2,000 policemen drawn from AP special police and traffic wings for bandobust and security duty in the city, less than 10,000 cops are left to thwart crime, carry out investigation and conduct property recovery work.
The calculation therefore works out to less than 1 cop for every 1,000 city residents. Security is provided to the VIPs by the Security Review Committee (SRC) chaired by the state intelligence chief, and is based on the Threat Perception Report (TPR) prepared by the local police.
Presently, the chief minister, governor and former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu are provided Z plus category, but out of these three, Naidu gets the National Security Guards (NSG) as he is a former chief minister. The Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court and important political leaders like KCR, YS Jaganmohan Reddy, M Venkaiah Naidu, deputy CM, former home ministers, including Sabita Indra Reddy, Jana Reddy and central minister S Jaipal Reddy get security cover under the Z category (11 guards).
All the cabinet ministers, including Union minister Chiranjeevi, prominent MLAs of various parties and senior members of the judiciary get security cover under the Y category (2+2) while MPs, MLAs, MLCs and prominent political party leaders get security under the X category (minimum one).
Security cover even extends to family members of the VIPs as well. They include marketing minister Mukesh Goud's son Vikram Goud, former home minister Sabita Indra Reddy's son Karthik Reddy, KCR's daughter Kavita and Anjan Kumar Yadav's son Anil Kumar Yadav.
Presently, they are being provided two gunmen by the city security wing. Some film stars like Balakrishna, Jeevitha and Rajasekhar are also provided gunmen against some payments. These film personalities are supposed to pay Rs 24,000 per month for each gunman they get, but according to city police sources, in most cases salaries are not paid by the celebrities.
A senior city cop admitted that maintaining law and order and checking crime, which are the concerns of the common man, are really low on their priority list.
When contacted city police commissioner Anurag Sharma said that they are providing security to people only after clearance from the SRC. "The committee recommends provision of gunmen to an individual based on the threat perception and we only follow the recommendations. As of now, there is a dearth of gunmen and in several cases we are unable to provide armed security personnel due to shortage of staff," Anurag Sharma said.
Question: Is one policeman for every 1,000 residents sufficient? Do you think attaching several cops to a VIP is justified? Please write in your views and personal experiences at banvipculture @ g mail.com and we will share your story with the readers.
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