New Delhi: An order by the finance ministry’s expenditure department Thursday accepted the home affairs ministry’s proposal to pay a 20 percent special allowance to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel in VIP security, but only if the VIP earlier had National Security Guard (NSG) or Special Protection Group (SPG) protection.
The implication of the order is that the 20 percent allowance will be limited to the personnel deployed in the security of only three VIPs, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who were given a Z+ security with advanced security liaison (Z+ASL) after the withdrawal of their SPG cover in 2019.
Contrastingly, the security personnel of Home Minister Amit Shah, for instance, will not get the 20 percent allowance because Shah, also a Z+ASL-category VIP, did not have SPG/NSG cover earlier. For the same reason, none of the security personnel of the other 33 VIPs in the Z+ and Z+ASL categories will get the allowance.
The order has sparked outrage in the ranks of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). One of the seven armed police organisations under the CAPF, the CRPF is the largest force in the VIP security domain, followed by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
The expenditure department order stated: “The proposal of the MHA for granting special security allowance (SSA) @20 percent of the basic pay to CAPF personnel engaged in VIP security duties has been examined in this department and is allowed only to CAPF personnel who are engaged in VIP security duties for Z+ and Z+ASL category protectees wherein SPG and NSG are replaced by CAPF.”
Officials in the CRPF told ThePrint that only a few of its 970 personnel in the VIP security wing are protecting the Gandhis, highlighting that the 20 percent allowance would be an “exception” rather than the norm. Allowance for fewer than 10 percent of its security personnel is problematic and unwarranted, they said, adding that it could complicate the deployment process and raise logistical and administrative challenges.
A senior CRPF officer said the CAPF proposed the allowance before the home ministry to make VIP security more financially lucrative and on par with the Left Wing Extremism or Kashmir sectors, where personnel get an allowance of at least Rs 17,000 per month, and that could have ensured smoother recruitment. However, “this order does not solve any of the problems that VIP security is facing”, the officer added.
Another senior officer said, “We have four Z+ASL protectees—the home minister and the three members of the Gandhi family. While the protection of the home minister was always with us, personnel securing him would not be eligible for pay allowance, but those for the Gandhis would be.”
The CRPF provides security to 212 VIPs in various categories, and the CISF secures 173 VIPs. Only Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets SPG protection. Nine VIPs, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, and Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah, get NSG protection.
The second officer quoted above said that no NSG protectee has, so far, been handed over to the CRPF or any force under the CAPF—which could have made more personnel eligible for the 20 percent allowance.
‘Discriminatory & difficult to implement’
While the narrow coverage of the order is a major bummer for the CRPF top brass, officials highlighted other “practical difficulties”, such as the divide it would create among personnel at the same level and rank. Moreover, the CRPF does not have any special team to protect any VIP, instead roping in personnel from local centres the VIPs visit—something that is not possible under the new order.
“We would send a small team with the protectee during travel, followed by the introduction of personnel from our local headquarters to complete the security arrangement,“ another CRPF official said. “This was the quick and best method because of the familiarity these personnel from local units had with their respective areas. It also saved us money on needless travel by a huge team.“
However, the order, the officials pointed out, makes it impossible to randomly assign personnel to protect a VIP because of the difference in payments to those guarding Z+ and Z+ASL VIPs, depending on whether the VIPs had NSG/SPG protection.
“Now, we will have to make a designated security team for the VIPs in the Z+ and Z+(ASG) categories and would have to make that team travel with the VIPs wherever they go. That will be unnecessarily expensive and pose logistical problems because of the additional protocols security personnel in VIP security have to follow,” another CRPF officer said.
The CRPF, the largest paramilitary force in the country, is grappling with the issue of too few takers, considering the mental toll and the lack of recuperation time the job demands, senior officials said, adding that the new order will further keep personnel away from joining.
“When personnel join the VIP security duty, they have to undergo strict screening tests, including psychological assessment, followed by training of 10 weeks before being assigned duties,” a CRPF official said. “They are trained to become the absolute security umbrella around the VIP they are protecting—including the mandatory formation of shields in times of crisis. In some cases, such as in the X category, personnel are under extra stress because they are only two in number.”
Faced with this, the CAPF proposed an allowance. However, “the restriction on categories does more harm than good”, the officer said. “This is an unwarranted order that would fuel discrimination and promote unfair competition to get into the security arrangement for VIPs falling under two categories,” the official explained.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)