6,000 Punjab cops to be sent back to field duty

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 17

The newly formed Congress government is all set to prune the security provided to VIPs, with 6,000 policemen attached with politicians and police officers likely to be sent back to field duty by next week. Also, the 60 police escort vehicles will now be used for general policing.

A state-level review committee under DGP (Law & Order) Hardeep Singh Dhillon was today constituted after Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora told Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh that Punjab had the best police-public ratio in the country, yet there were not enough policemen on the streets to check crime.

The committee will submit its report to the DGP, with category-wise recommendations, by March 24.

The other members on the committee are ADGPs (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta, ADGP (Security) BK Bawa, who is member secretary, and IGP (Special Protection Unit) Pramod Ban.

The Bureau of Police Research and Development had in 2014 pointed out that 5,811 cops were guarding VIPs in Punjab (the highest in the country). This number later swelled to 12,000. Facing flak, the SAD-BJP government pulled back 4,000 security guards during two drives — the first in 2016 and the second just before the 2017 Assembly elections.

Police sources, pointing out that having guards had become a status symbol, said some SP-rank officials had more that 25 policemen serving them. A DSP-level officer, who was well-connected, had 20 gunmen and a Congress leader about 100.

Both AAP and the Congress had in their manifestos promised to do away with the "gunmen culture" in the state. Newly appointed Finance Minister Manpreet Badal had yesterday declined police security, the first politician to do so.