Govt spending about Rs 20 lakh per month on Governor's security

Panaji, July 24 (UNI) Goa government is incurring a whopping Rs 19.49 lakh per month towards security cover of Governor S C Jamir who is in the Z+ category.

Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Wilfred de Souza, who are placed in the Z category, however incur Rs 6.74 lakh and Rs 1.14 lakh, respectively.

These details were provided in reply to an unstarred question of Narahari Haldankar (BJP) tabled in the State Legislative Assembly today. The costs involved were towards payment of monthly salaries of the security personnel.

Apart from positioning one company of Central Industrial Security Force as the guard, the government had posted 13 plain clothesmen and six personal security officers for the Governor.

Twenty police constables and five head constables were placed as guards, 17 policemen as plain clothsmen and eight as psersonal security officers for the Chief Minister.

The Deupty Chief Minister had eight guards, ten plain clothed and two policemen as personal security officers.

There are in all 21 people in the VIP/VVIP category being provided with the security cover as per norms and protocol requirements in the state, according to Mr Rane.

They included nine other ministers, besides speaker Francisco Sardinha and deputy speaker Victoria Fernandes and the BJP opposition leader and former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar - who are all in the Y category of security.

Lok Sabha members Shripad Naik (BJP) and Churchil Alemao (Cong), GPCC president and former Chief Minister Ravi Naik, Chief Secretary J P Singh, Advocate General of Goa Subodh Kantak were others getting the Y category security cover.

Interestingly, editor of Goan Observor Rajan Narain, Parliamentry Secretary Agnelo Fernandes and State Chief Election Officer Rajiv Yaduvanshi were placed under the X catetory security as per the threat perception.

The IAS officer Rajiv got the cover as per threat to him recommended by the Election Commission of India.

At the same time, the government had incured about Rs 70,000 towards cost of petrol consumed by the three vehicles escorting the Chief Minister and about Rs 17,000 for Deputy Chief Minister and Rs 14,722 for Governor for June this year.

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