The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : An additional burden on the State exchequer

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Friday, Aug 08, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

An additional burden on the State exchequer

K.V. Subramanya

Rs. 37 lakh a year being spent on VIPs facing naxal threat

BANGALORE: The expenditure on countering the naxalite movement has placed a heavy burden on the State coffers. Besides, spending crores of rupees on the anti-naxalite operations, the State Government is incurring an additional expenditure of Rs. 37 lakh annually towards providing security to politicians from the naxal-affected districts.

As many as seven MLAs, two MLCs and five former legislators from the naxalite-hit districts of Tumkur, Udupi, Chikmagalur, Shimoga and Chitradurga have been provided security by the State police. Incidentally, all the MLAs are from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Sri Bharathi Tirtha Swamiji of Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetam, which is located in Chikmagalur district, is the only non-politician who has been provided security guards. The seer has been given security since 1989.

According to an official document, the Government is spending an additional Rs. 3 lakh every month towards providing security to these VIPs. The annual expenditure on the security of nine sitting legislators alone accounts for around Rs. 18 lakh.

Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council V.S. Ugrappa, who hails from Pavagada taluk in Tumkur district, the Government Chief Whip and Sringeri MLA D.N. Jeevaraj and senior Congress leader D.B. Chandre Gowda are prominent among those who have been provided security guards.

Asked whether these VIPs had been provided security in view of any specific threat from naxalites, Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order) A.R. Infant told The Hindu that a committee headed by the chief of the State’s Intelligence wing reviewed the threat perception to an individual and determined the security to be provided.

Sources in the Intelligence wing say that various factors are taken into consideration while assessing the threat perception to an individual. Thought the Government had been providing security to VIPs from naxalite-affected areas since 2004, the list has grown in recent months. Starting July 10, 2008 the Byndoor MLA P. Lakshminarayana has been given armed security guards.

Belur Gopalakrishna, the second time MLA for Sagar in Shimoga district, and former Pavagada MLA K.M. Thimmarayappa have been provided security since March 2008. A gunman escorts the newly-elected MLA for the Shimoga Rural constituency K.G. Kumaraswamy whenever he travels in the naxal-hit areas.

The other politicians who have been provided security are MLC B.T. Channabasappa of Chitradurga district, the Udupi MLA K. Raghupathi Bhat, the Mudigere MLA M.P. Kumaraswamy, Kaup MLA Lalji R.Mendon and former MLAs Araga Jnanendra, V. Sunil Kumar and Gopal Poojary.

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