Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 26
The government has withdrawn the Special Protection Group (SPG) security cover given to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following a review by security agencies. Now he will only have Z+ security.
An official of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the former Prime Minister has duly been informed about the move to withdraw the SPG contingent from his residence here after one of the Central Armed Police Forces takes over the responsibility.
“The current security cover review is a periodical and professional exercise based on threat perception that is purely based on professional assessment by security agencies. Dr Manmohan Singh continues to have Z+ security cover,” the official said.
The decision to withdraw the elite SPG security was taken after a three-month review involving the Cabinet Secretariat and the MHA with inputs from various intelligence agencies, the official said.
Now, as the SPG cover has been withdrawn from Dr Sing’s security, the elite force will now be available only to PM Narendra Modi and the Gandhi family — Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her children, Rahul and Priyanka. Dr Singh’s daughters, who were also given SPG cover, gave up the protection voluntarily in 2014.
The SPG was set up in 1985 after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Parliament passed the SPG Act in 1988, dedicating the group to protecting the Prime Minister. At the time, the Act did not include former Prime Ministers. When VP Singh came to power in 1989, his government withdrew SPG protection given to his predecessor Rajiv Gandhi. But after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991, the SPG Act was amended to offer SPG protection to all former Prime Ministers and their families for at least 10 years.
In 2003, the AB Vajpayee government again amended the SPG Act to bring the period of automatic protection down from 10 years to one year from the date on which the former PM ceased to hold office” and beyond one year based on the level of threat.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2ZyjzWS
via Today’s News Headlines
No comments: