District police chiefs have been directed to gear up for the ‘VVIP’ visits with a galaxy of VVIPs thronging the poll-bound state in the run-up to the February 15 election. Some of them are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union cabinets ministers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah, Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati.
Informing this, the additional director general of police (law and order) Ram Singh Meena said on Friday that taking no chances, they have made elaborate security arrangements for the purpose.
He further said the category of security given to the leaders is being based on the discretion of the home ministry. “The threat perception is being taken into account based on the inputs given by the Intelligence Bureau,” he said, adding that the district police chiefs have been directed to conduct vehicle checking drives at inter-state borders and inter-district borders apart from verification drives of the residents in the areas where people of other states are living and outsiders are coming frequently.
Meena said that the Central Government has deployed a team of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) comprising 10 officers to ensure peaceful public rallies and they are reviewing security of CRPF protectees.
According to police sources, security being provided to high-risk individuals depending on the threat perception to the persons concerned, the category is divided into four tiers: Z-Plus, Z, Y and X. Notably, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security comes under the Special Protection Group while that of the Congress vice -president Rahul Gandhi is also taken care of by the SPG.
All the Congress dissidents who joined the BJP are being given status of CRPF protectees.
In most cases, chief ministers and ministers of the cabinet rank are entitled to Z and Z-Plus security. The Z-Plus security cover includes 36 personnel while the Z and Y category have 11 and 2 personnel respectively. MP has been brought under the ‘X’ category of VIP protection and the task has been entrusted to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) which deploys about 5-6 armed commandos for each of the MPs.