JOIN USPunjab's initiative cuts to size the big fat VIP aura
The Punjab government has decided to withdraw 2,040 police personnel involved in giving security cover to VIPs.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said” “The number of people enjoying security cover without any real threat could be alarming and is being examined. Another 1,000 gunmen attached with VIPs are likely to be taken off in the next phase.”
The withdrawn gunmen are being sent for three months of rigorous commando training to be fit for duties other than with VIPs.
Currently 2,750 people in Punjab are given police protection. The figure is now under review. The police will now make use of over a hundred vehicles that have been withdrawn from VIPs.
The exercise to rationalise deployment as part of police reforms under newly appointed Punjab DGP S S Saini has corrected a grave rot. Sources say as many as 473 gunmen were deployed without any official orders in Punjab. But that’s now a thing of the past. All these deployments have been withdrawn.
The police have maintained the need for such an exercise since many enjoying the luxury of gunmen were property dealers, businessmen sans any justifiable threat to life and property. Several hundreds of gunmen attached with former MLAs, senior serving Punjab policemen and judicial officers have been also been withdrawn.
Into its second consecutive term, the SAD-BJP government led by CM Parkash Singh Badal is conscious of not slipped into a mode of complacency. Sukhbir Badal says he wants to bring in a perceptible change in governance. Beginning June 10, ministers, MLAs,
politicians, bureaucrats and policemen will be handed out tickets for unauthorised use of red beacons. The exercise is underway to issue authorisation slips and stickers only to limited persons for use of red lights atop their vehicles.