Expenditure on VIP security
Security cover is provided to individuals by virtue of the posts held by them viz. the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Union Ministers, Chief Justice/Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, Speakers of the Lok Sabha and their counterparts in the State Government set-up and some senior Government functionaries dealing with sensitive subjects having a bearing on national security. Security cover is also provided to an individual on the basis of comprehensive assessment-of-threat carried out by the security agencies. Since Law and Order is a State subject under the Constitution, the responsibility for providing security to an individual who is ordinarily resident in or happens to be under the jurisdiction of a State Government, lies primarily with the State Governments concerned. State Governments have their own mechanism for assessing threat, providing security and reviewing security.
The Central Government too provides security cover on the basis of assessment of threat to some individuals. The security provided is subject to periodic review, based on which security is continued/ withdrawn/ downgraded/ upgraded. Thus the number of protected in the Central List varies from time to time. However, as on date, there are 275 threat-based protected in the Central List, as per details below:
Z+ category 31
Z category 77
Y category 136
X category 31
Total 275
Details of protected of the State Governments and expenditure incurred on their security, are not available with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
As regards expenditure on security, the same is difficult to determine precisely as it would include salary and allowances to security personnel, communication, transport vehicles etc. which are accounted for under respective budget heads of different security agencies, including State Government agencies, involved in providing security cover. Such details are not compiled centrally and so cannot be provided.
This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary in a written reply to a question by Shri Om Birla in the Lok Sabha.
