A parliamentary panel has advised the Centre to expeditiously hand over VIP security duties to the Special Security Group (SSG) of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and relieve border guarding paramilitary forces like ITBP and BSF as also CRPF of personal protection roles.
“The committee takes note of the (Home) Ministry's plan to progressively assign security of all VIP protectees, apart from high risk protectees, to the SSG. The committee recommends that the ministry should implement this plan at the earliest and put an end to the issue of multiple forces being assigned the task of VIP security,” the panel noted in its report tabled before the Parliament on Wednesday.
The CRPF provides security cover to 76 VIPs including BJP president Amit Shah and former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav. ITBP protects 18 high profile persons including judges of the Supreme Court and politicians from Jammu and Kashmir. The ITBP that is the border guarding force for Indo-China frontier has been engaged in VVIP security deployment since early nineties. The National Security Guard (NSG) protects 15 VIPs, including Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
The counter-terror force NSG has urged the Home Ministry to relieve it from VIP security duties. VIP protection assignments often hit the core operational roles of the paramilitary forces. It also affects their reserve component of the forces leading to the lack of leave to the jawans. The CRPF has deployed as many as six battalions (6,000 personnel) of CRPF are engaged in VIP security duty which adversely affects the reserve factor of the force. Under reserve category, the personnel are engaged in training and such postings are given after hard postings.
Personal protection of the VIPs is provided in four categories that include Z-plus (38 guards), Z (24 guards), Y (11 guards) and X (2 guards). VIP security entails an annual expenditure of Rs 390 crore, officials said.
Following the Kargil misadventure, a Group of Ministers had in 2002 recommended the designation of CISF for VIP security duties and also advised that one force will guard one border but that has also been tinkered with and the border guarding paramilitary forces are engaged in anti-Naxal deployments and counter insurgency roles.
The home ministry provides security cover on the basis of threat assessment to some individuals on the basis of inputs of the Intelligence Bureau. The assessment is subject to periodic review based on which it is continued/withdrawn/downgraded/upgraded.
The Parliamentary committee on Home Affairs also expressed disappointment over “difficulties” being faced by CRPF jawans fighting Naxals in Chhattisgarh in getting their daily meals and some paramilitary personnel living in “sub-human conditions” in different parts of the country.
“They (CRPF personnel) have to depend on local 'haats' and contractors for supply of raw material for their food. The committee recommends that a foolproof mechanism should be developed for ensuring regular supply of nutritious food, including dishes/raw materials of different cuisines to all CRPF camps particularly those which have no access or difficult access to local market like Bastar in Chhattisgarh,” the panel added.