Centre asks KCR, Naidu to minimise public appearances for security reason
There is an enhanced threat to their lives from both theMaoists and Islamic militant groups.
any police swooping down on the extremists, the ultras have openly stated that they won’t spare the leaders.
This has prompted a massive overhaul of the security of the CMs since the last week of October, according to police officials who are in the know of things. Officials told The Sunday Guardian that the enhanced security would be as per the suggestions from the MHA. “But, we are seeing that the CMs’ interactions with the public are least disturbed,” an official said. KCR, who has been staying most of the time at his Gajwel farmhouse in Medak district, which is around 80 km from Hyderabad, has been asked to move over to his camp office- cumresidence at Begumpet in Hyderabad, for better security. KCR has been avoiding Hyderabad residence due to bad “vastu” reasons.
At the same, a new camp office and residence complex at Punjagutta built at a cost of Rs 50 crore will be ready for occupation by the CM by the end of November. The police officials who visited the new complex were satis- fied with the security provisions in the new complex.
Currently, KCR is guarded by around 90 police personnel on round-the-clock duty and the number would be doubled soon. His movements in the city and outside are fully sanitised, meaning, traffic is completely stopped till his convoy passes off any point. The CM would be advised to henceforth travel mostly by the chopper and avoid forest areas.
KCR faces security threat from different groups, according to police sources. Maoists who are under pressure in neighbouring AP and Chhattisgarh are likely to attack him, if possible. Islamic terrorists like SIMI are another threat as the police have recently stepped up pressure on them and killed a few of them within and outside the state.
Besides, KCR also faces threat from the members of deceased gangster Mohammad Nayeem who was killed in a police encounter two months ago. Over 100 members of his gang were arrested in dozens of cases pending against Nayeem. There is a possibility of some of the hiding members of the gang striking at the CM, sources said.
AP CM Naidu, too, faces threat from both Maoists and SIMI militants, who had suffered the worst since recently. Maoists’ spokesman Jagan released a press statement Wednesday threatening to cause harm to the CM and his family members as revenge against the killing of 30 Maoists in the AndhraOrissa border last week.
As a response to this threat, the AP Cabinet, which met at Amaravati this week, sanctioned Rs 100 crore to create a new security force, The CM Protection Group (CMPG) with 290 personnel to provide round the clock cover to Naidu, as well as his immediate family members. The Cabinet authorised the police department to draw efficient officials from different wings to the CMPG.
Presently, Naidu has been meeting public at four places—at his temporary residence near Amaravati on the banks of Krishna River, at his camp office in Vijayawada, at the Secretariat in Amaravati and also at the Lake View Guest House in Hyderabad. The Lake View Guest House has been allocated to the AP CM’s camp office by a Governor order.
Now, the AP police are planning to curtail his visits to the Lake View Guest House in Hyderabad as the security cover there is found to be inadequate and also reduces his meetings at the Vijayawada camp office as the place is not security proof, sources in the AP police told this newspaper.
Now, Naidu will meet his visitors either at the Amaravati Secretariat or his temporary residence on the Krishna banks.
“We have no intention of curtailing the CM’s interactions with the public, because that may not be possible at all. But, certainly we will tighten the security around him and screen the profile of visitors before meeting him,” said a DCP in Vijayawada police who looks after the camp office security. All the district SPs, too, have been directed to deploy more men on security during the CM’s visits to the districts.