Chandigarh, Aug 8 : The Punjab government has decided to withdraw the state police security of Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa, who has been slamming his own party's state government, after an assessment showed that he had virtually no threat perception.
He was, in any case, getting central security directly accorded to him by the Union Home Ministry.
Disclosing this, an official spokesperson said on Saturday that the state police security provided to Bajwa had become redundant since he had got personal security directly from Home Minister Amit Shah.
A mixed security component was not considered good, particularly when the Rajya Sabha MP had, by opting for central security, shown that he had no faith in the state police.
According to the spokesperson, contrary to claims made by Bajwa, the central security he had got was not at the behest of the Congress leadership.
In fact, the Union Home Ministry had not even consulted the state government to gauge the threat perception, which is usually done before providing central security to any person.
Bajwa, as Rajya Sabha MP, may have simply approached the party's leader in the House, Ghulam Nabi Azad, to seek central security, and as is the norm the latter could have sent his request to the Union Home Ministry.
However, for some reason, the Home Ministry chose not to discuss the matter of Bajwa's threat perception with the state government, which was a clear deviation from the norm followed in such cases, the spokesperson said.
He said that Bajwa had actually been getting enhanced security from the Punjab Police all this time, way beyond what he was entitled to as a Rajya Sabha MP.
This was because the state government had decided not to withdraw the security he had at his disposal as president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC).
Bajwa was given Z Category security cover by the Union Home Ministry on March 19 and as of date has 25 CISF personnel for his personal security, protection of residence and escort, besides 2 escort drivers.
Till March 23, he also had 14 Punjab Police personnel deployed with him but a few were withdrawn for Covid duties.
He currently has six state police personnel and an escort with driver, which are now being withdrawn, said the spokesperson.
--IANS
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Source: IANS
