Days before taking oath as Punjab Chief Minister, the CM-designate Bhagwant Mann appears to have set in motion an exercise to end the VIP culture with orders to withdraw 384 policemen from the security of 122 politicians, including sitting and former legislators, the state.
As per the order issued by the additional director general of police (security), a day after the CM designate Mann met Punjab Police Director General of Police (DGP) VK Bhawra, security of 122 VVIPs, including former ministers, will be withdrawn. The withdrawn policemen will report to their parent units.
This list doesn’t include names of former CMs Captain Amarinder Singh, Charanjit Singh Channi and Parkash Singh Badal as they have been given security on the instructions of the Union home ministry.
The list mostly includes names of Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) belonging to the Congress. It also names 14 former ministers in the Congress government and Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife who is a former Congress MLA.
The list also includes names of seven Congress MLAs who have won the Assembly poll but as ministers in the previous Congress government, they were enjoying more security.
The former ministers who will lose their security include Manpreet Singh Badal, Raj Kumar Verka, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Randeep Singh Nabha, Razia Sultana, Pargat Singh, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Aruna Chaudhary, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria.
According to the list, while the highest 21 security personnel will be withdrawn from the services of former transport minister Warring who remains an MLA after retaining his Gidderbaha seat, 19 personnel will be withdrawn from the security of former finance minister Badal who lost the election from Bathinda Urban.
As many as 17 personnel will be withdrawn from the security of former education minister Pargat Singh who remains an MLA after winning the poll from Jalandhar Cantt. Former food minister Ashu, who lost from Ludhiana West, will lose 16 security personnel.
Fifteen personnel each have been withdrawn from the security of Sangat Singh Gilzian and Randeep Singh Nabha, both former Cabinet ministers who lost the poll.