The impending visit of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to Tiruchi on May 24 has galvanised the police top brass into drawing up an enhanced security scheme.
Additional manpower would be drawn from other districts to put in place a watertight security for the Chief Minister, who is covered under the “Z Plus” category protection by the National Security Guard (NSG) commandos.
An enhanced security cover was deployed during the Chief Minister’s brief stopover in Tiruchi on her way to Thanjavur and back in March first week.
Prior to this, the Governor, with “Z Plus” security cover, was in the city.
The May 24 visit of the Chief Minister would be her second trip this year to Tiruchi, where VIP movements have become common in the last few years.
The former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was in the city on February 7 and the former Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, a “protected person” falling under the “Z” category security provided with CRPF commandos was here on three occasions this year.
According to police sources, State Ministers visited Tiruchi 20 times this year while Union Ministers were here on 12 occasions.
There have been five visits by Ministers from other States and prominent BJP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders were here 10 times. On three occasions, the city played host to Foreign Ministers.
The scale of security provided to the VIP concerned depends on the position held by them and the threat perception.
Security cover is given as per “foreigners” scale to the foreign dignitaries, say police sources.
Security is given as per the prescribed scale — ‘X’, ‘Y’, ‘Z’ and ‘Z Plus’ to the dignitary concerned.
Police sources say Judges and Members of Commission fall under the “X” category while State Ministers and Union Ministers come under the “Y” category.
Route security forms part of the detailed security arrangement when VVIPs, especially those provided with NSG and Special Protection Group commandos, take the road.
The overall objective was to ensure that nothing was left to chance, say the sources.
