West Bengals new Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not ready to trust the state police with her security. Not yet. Deeply distrustful of anything remotely linked with the CPMs 34-year-rule in the state,Banerjee continues to be guarded by commandos of the Railway Protection Force,despite being entitled to a Z-plus security cover in her state. A team of 17 RPF commandos are assigned to accompany her round-the-clock. The RPF,a para-military unit under the charge of the Union Home Ministry,neither has the legal mandate nor the expertise to provide personal security to any individual. Banerjee has taken about 80 personnel from the RPF for her personal security,sources in Delhi said. Most of these are policemen who guarded her throughout her tenure as the Railway Minister. We have to ensure foolproof security to our Chief Minister. And the first thing we need to do is to remove some senior police officials in the security directorate holding important positions as they are believed to be close aides of the former chief minister, said Rachpal Singh,a former DG of state police,who is now a member of Mamatas Trinamool Congress party. Rachpal Singh said a reshuffle of the entire security set-up in the state was on the cards. Sources in the government said that the Home department was going to convene a meeting soon to decide on Banerjees security. Banerjee,in fact,used the RPF very frequently whenever she campaigned in her home state in the months leading to the Assembly elections. During a massive show of strength rally in Lalgarh in August 2010,she had even ordered the deployment of the RPF at the venue without keeping either the West Bengal Police or the Union Home Ministry in the loop. Banerjeebefore she left the Rail Bhawanhad chosen an officer to head the RPF. The out-of-turn appointment of P K Mehta,a 1977-batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre,as the new director general of RPF was made by superceding as many as 28 officers. It was done even without finding an alternative job for the incumbent Ranjit Sinha,who has more than a year to go for retirement. Sinha is still awaiting a decision on his next assignment. Sources said at least seven superceded officers had written to the Home Ministry complaining against this pick-and-choose method of appointment and plan to move the Central Administrative Tribunal. (with inputs from Madhuparna Das,Kolkata)
