No men or money to protect Salt Lake, but govt spends a crore on VIP security

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Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay

Posted online: Tuesday , February 19, 2008 at 12:40:23
Updated: Tuesday , February 19, 2008 at 12:59:20

Kolkata, February 18 Salt Lake is reeling under a spate of robberies. But while spending over a crore of rupees every year for the protection of 18 VIPs residing there, the state government is blaming the law order problem on paucity of men and the “location”.

This came to light after The Indian Express filed a query with the state home department under the Right to Information Act. The number of VIPs living in the area was sought. So was the amount of money the government spends on their security.

A letter from Superintendent of Police, North 24 Parganas district, under which Salt Lake falls, read: “The total number of VIPs staying at Salt Lake is 18, who are given round the clock protection by the state police and the total annual cost for the force deployed for the security purpose of the VIPs residing under Bidhannagar sub-division comes roughly to

Rs 1, 36, 06, 248.”

The VIPs include former chief minister Jyoti Basu, finance minister Asim Dasgupta, former Army chief General Shankar Roy Choudhury, Chandan Basu, son of Jyoti Basu and Chandan's former wife Dolly Basu.

In the last 45 days, Salt Lake has witnessed 33 robberies, which cost the residents lakhs of rupees in cash and jewellery. On Sunday, a meeting took place between the police and the citizens to find out a way out of the crisis. The police, however, did not comment on the VIP security. Jogesh Chattopadhyay, IG, headquarters, state police told The Indian Express: “There is a dearth of policemen there and we don't have a strong infrastructure either. Also, Salt Lake is located at such a place that criminals can sneak in and run away after committing the crime very easily.”

Residents fume at the double standards of the state government. “When we ask the police to increase security for us, they blame it on a paucity of men and money. But for VIPs there is no dearth of funds. When we draw their attention to this, they say it's a government's policy. It's so unfortunate,” said Himanshu Roy, president of AB Block committee of Salt Lake.

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