MUMBAI: Feeling the pinch of shortage of policemen during the Mumbai terror attacks in November, the Mumbai police has decided to scale down the free-security cover to politicians, businessmen and celebrities.
Senior police officials made the assessment of the free-security protection given to a large number of people, and brought out a list to remove more than 95 percent of the names from the list.
According to a senior police official, only film star Amitabh Bachchan and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who are considered as national icons, would continue to avail the free-security cover, while the rest who wish to avail security will have the choice to shell out more, pay the security charges on time or they will have to live with the police guards.
“No free lunch anymore,” said the police officer, who added that those wishing to avail police protection will have to pay higher protection costs between fifty to 100 percent, according to their security requirements.
The free-security cover would be withdrawn from February, and those who want to continue with the police protection for their personal safety will have to pay the exorbitant charges, which also includes including politicians and celebrities.
The previous security charges for providing a constable with revolver was Rs.2,000 which has now been revised to Rs.3,200 per day. The steep hike, according to a police official, is not about generating revenue for the police department but of discouraging people from seeking police personnel for personal reasons.
After the November terror attacks, the Mumbai police has received hundreds of requests from businessmen and celebrities requesting to provide them with police protection. Not only this, there was a huge number of requests to provide police protection for events like weddings.
K.L. Prasad, the joint commissioner of police (law and order), said that the Mumbai police were feeling the crunch of manpower shortage and requests for security cover have increased sharply. Therefore, a decision was taken to hike the cost for providing police security to the people.
The police are under intense pressure to provide security to vital installations in the city. And “we don’t have enough police personnel to provide security cover to the people. It is next to impossible for the Mumbai police to meet the huge demand for police security to citizens,” he said. The special security committee which oversees the hiring process for police protection, has taken stringent steps and had stopped several other requests.
