New Delhi, March 31: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday asked elite Special Protection Group (SPG) to ensure least inconvenience to the general public and to be unobtrusive without compromising security of those protected.
Complimenting the SPG on its 22nd Raising Day, the Prime Minister also released a commemorative postage stamp on the occasion.
The function, to which the media was not allowed, was also attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, an SPG protectee, Union Ministers AK Antony, P Chidambaram and A Raja.
While appreciating the role of SPG, the prime minister, emphasized the need for trying to cause least inconvenience to the general public and being as unobtrusive as possible without compromising the security of those protected.
The remarks of the prime minister came in the backdrop of some incidents that had taken place last year in Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh when the general public had faced a lot of problems because of movement of the SPG protectees.
One patient Sumit Verma died during Singh’s visit to PGI Chandigarh in November last year and his family claimed that they were denied timely treatment because securitymen kept diverting the vehicle carrying the VVIP.
This had prompted the prime minister himself to regret the incident and he wrote a letter to the wife of the deceased saying, “I am writing to you to express my profound sense of sadness at the death of your husband Shri Sumit Verma.”
Observing that the patient could not get access to the PGI in time because of the restrictions in place for his visit, he had said “this is something I deeply regret”.
During the function today, a film on SPG was also screened highlighting the challenges faced and the efforts put in by the elite force, which was formed by an Act of Parliament in 1988 following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Under this Act, the SPG provides proximate security to the current prime minister of the country, former prime ministers and members of their immediate families.
Gandhi and her two children Rahul and Priyanka are also under SPG protection.
The 3,000-strong force has been pressing for an aircraft for long in order to meet its needs to carry out sensitisation ahead of a VVIP visit. Keeping this in mind, the budgetary proposal of the SPG has been increased by 19.43 per cent this year.
-PTI