J&K accounts for 10% of India's VIPs

JAMMU: Of the 20,828 Very Important Persons in country to get dedicated protection from Police, nearly 10 percent belong to Jammu and Kashmir, the state featuring third in the list of VIPs in 29 states and 6 Union Territories.
As per the official data, Jammu and Kashmir has a total of 2,075 VIPs, each of them protected round the clock by more than two policemen, on average.
For the security of these 2075 bigwigs, a total of 4499 policemen are deployed in our highly sensitive state which is already facing scarcity of cops for general policing.
The only saving grace for state has remained the average of 2.16 policemen for one VIP, marginally lesser than national average of 2.73.
However, the situation is increasingly grim in entire country, as VIP culture dominates and compromises severely with the security of general public.
As per the latest figures revealed by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) under the home ministry, over 20,000 VIPs have on average three cops to protect each of them while there is a huge shortage of policemen for ordinary citizens, the statistics revealing one cop for 663 citizens.
The figures demonstrate that out of a total 19.26 lakh police officers in the country, 56,944 are deployed just for the safety of 20,828 VIPs across 29 states and six Union territories.
For ordinary citizens, however, India remains among the least policed countries in the world, with one cop looking after every 663 Indians.
The BPR&D data shows that VIP culture is more prevalent in north and east India. Bihar, which has one of the poorest police-to-population ratios, has the maximum number of 3,200 'VIPs' being given protection by 6,248 cops.
West Bengal is another state that makes full use of police for such privileges. The state has 2,207 'VIPs' protected by 4,233 cops, while only 501 cops were originally sanctioned for such duties.
Bengal is followed by J&K, which has 2,075 'VIPs' getting security from 4,499 policemen.
Uttar Pradesh, whose CM Yogi Aditya Nath has vowed to prune VIP culture, is not far behind. There are 1,901 protectees in the state with 4,681 cops at their service. Punjab has 1,852 VIPs protected by as many as 5,315 cops.
The southern states are better. In Kerala there are 57 being protected by 214 cops. In Maharashtra 74 VIPs are being protected by 961 cops. In Delhi, there are 489 protected persons being guarded by 7,420 cops.
More than threat perception, having a police officer around for security has become a status symbol for many.
Although the Centre has taken steps such as banning red beacons, states make their own rules and use police to provide personal security to many, often citing 'threat to life' as the reason.