[Assam] VIP Security Cult

[Ram Sarangapani]

KJD,

I agree. Maybe, with the possible exception of the CM & Gov., no one else in
the state should be given any kind of security or a royal parade to the
airport or elsewhere.  That should be the condition for any election or
government appointment.

It seems, during an earlier Assam regime, it was always possible for you to
miss a flight because the access road to Borjhar was blocked for at least 2
hours when a VIP was going to Dilli or elsewhere. I don't the situation has
changed any.

It ought to be humiliating & like a slap on the face for the people to see
these montris & babus blatantly fleecing the state of meagre resources.

--Ram

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 8:45 PM, kamal deka <kjit.deka at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am at one with the view expressed by the following editorial of The
> Sentinel in regard to the security cover of the politicians/bigwigs,
> categorised as VIPs.
> Why do these VIPs including those who have demitted office need more
> security than the common man who is increasingly exposed to criminality and
> law-and-order problems.Many of these protected persons don't face the kind
> of threat that warrant security cover they are given.Sometimes,the personal
> security cover smacks of a show of power.
> I was surprised to see a policeman who was forced to carry bag of groceries
> of the VIP " mem sahib " as a part of his duty to protect ' Who is Who'.
> BTW, these so-called VIPs should not have special lounge for them at the
> airports.They should stand in a queue just like others and go through
> normal
> security drills.What's your take,folks.
> KJ Deka
>
>
>   * PSO culture: Tarun Gogoi must answerd to the*
>
> : By our Staff Reporter
> GUWAHATI, Feb 9: When bomb blasts in the State are a routine feature and
> people have no security whatsoever as to whether they would even return
> home
> safe, the State Government has deployed about 1,000 personal security
> officers (PSOs) to protect a whole lot of so-called VIPs in Guwahati (apart
> from ministers) for whom there is absolutely no threat perception but who
> seem to require such security just because they want to show that they have
> a higher social status. All this is happening at the cost of the State
> exchequer, while ordinary citizens are to fend for themselves in an utterly
> insecure environment. If this is not the defeat of democracy, what else is?
>
> Perhaps this realization has dawned upon the State DGP. He has now
> requested
> the State Home Department to review the allocation of PSOs/ house guards to
> the VIPs, retired IAS and IPS officers, businessmen, politicians, some
> so-called media barons and SULFA men. Dearth of an adequate number of
> police
> personnel for counter-insurgency operations has badly affected the fight
> against militancy and terrorism in the State.
> A large number of policemen who are supposed to be engaged for the security
> of the common people are used as PSOs. In Guwahati alone, apart from the
> PSOs provided to the ministers, about 1,000 police personnel are used as
> PSOs of VIPs, retired IPS/IAS officers, businessmen and some so-called
> media
> barons. There are many in the State for whom PSOs are a mere status symbol.
> There are many retired IAS and IPS officers who continue to get PSOs/house
> guards even seven or eight years after their superannuation though they do
> not face any security threat. Why? Is it not a drain on the State
> exchequer?
> Same is the case with others in question who simply cannot stay without
> PSOs
> even though they do not face any security threat. Why? Is it not at the
> cost
> of the security of ordinary citizens?
> Every district of the State has a committee headed by the SP to look after
> the security threat of the applicants for PSOs. PSOs are provided to the
> applicant based on the report of the panels headed by the SP.
> The PSO syndrome has affected the State police force both in terms of
> strength and psychology, since a large number of policemen are used as PSOs
> and cannot adjust themselves with other police duties that require more
> agility and presence of mind. Most of these PSOs gradually forget whatever
> they have learnt during the course of their training.
> Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who also holds the State Home portfolio, must
> explain to the people as to why his administration has set such a perverse
> and undemocratic precedent of PSO culture in a State where terrorism visits
> every other day and where the people are left unprotected despite the many
> threats.
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