The IB, which recently studied the threat perception to Sonia and her family, has submitted a detailed report in this regard to the Ministry, it is learnt. IB chief Shyamal Dutta, sources stressed, supervised the study and was instrumental in giving a final shape to the report.

While not many would have much against continuation of the SPG cover to Sonia, a section of North Block official do not see merit in the move. Their reluctance is partly due to financial reasons, considering that an SPG dragnet around a protected person always turns out to be an exorbitant affair.

At the same time, these officials also question the ``logic'' of providing top-notch security set up forSonia and other ex-PMs but not to a number of other political VIPs with an equally high -- or at times more -- threat perception.

As one such official argued, ``the degree of threat to politically active people like L K Advani, Prakash Singh Badal, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, M S Bitta, even Jayalalitha, is equivalent to Sonia. So why deprive them of the full-fledged protection? The proposed modifications in the SPG Act will have to take these things into account to make it appear more rational and less lopsided as it currently is.''

Amid reports that the SPG Act itself is in for drastic modifications, observers in North Block point at another dichotomy. It's strange, they stress, that while three former PMs (Narasimha Rao, Chandra Shekhar and I K Gujral) are protected by the SPG cover, two others (Deve Gowda and V P Singh) have repeatedly urged the Government to take away the security cover and thereby spare the exchequer. ``And the irony is that none of these five persons face much threat perception,'' saida senior official.

Incidentally, the IB chief's report now placed before the decision-makers in the Home Ministry concerns only Sonia Gandhi and none of the other persons protected by the SPG.