Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is now protected not just on land, but also on air as well as water routes. The state government has upgraded the chief minister’s security after a decision on this was taken by the cabinet by circulation, wherein the members do not meet but state their views in writing.

A senior UP government officer said, “There have been some alerts about threats in recent times and as we give the utmost importance to CM’s security, the security has been upscaled. The CM is already an NSG (National Security Guards) protectee and he will be under a security ring even when he is airborne or travels by a water route. We cannot share any more details about it as they are confidential yet.”

As of now, the UP CM is under security cover when he travels by road, but not when he is travelling by any other means.

When he travels by air, his security guards accompany him till he boards an aircraft/helicopter and soon after he lands. A security team accompanies him to the airport or helipad and an advance security team receives him when he arrives at his destination.

“We cannot say if there will be any additional aircraft or any additional water vessel. But it is clear that a security ring will be around him on whichever aircraft or water vessel he travels in,” the officer said.

A senior police officer confirmed that the state government had amended the 2002 ‘green book’ regarding the chief minister’s security.

Under the present system, when the chief minister travels by helicopter, he is accompanied by his day officer, some other officer, in some cases a minister and the crew members. There are no security personnel. Now, under the amended security norms, there will be his day officer and some security personnel. The government thinks in case of any unscheduled, urgent or an emergency landing by his helicopter at any unscheduled place, the CM will be without any security under the present kind of system

Recently, the UP government has received security and intelligence inputs regarding threats to the chief minister. The state government has already tightened security at his residence, the office and when he travels by road.

In August, the Madhya Pradesh police had issued an alert to UP government about the threat of an attack on Yogi Adityanath.

Soon afterwards, there was an alert by central intelligence agencies about a possible attack on him during a two-day BJP state executive meeting.

First Published: Dec 01, 2018 15:27 IST