Dist CPM bigwigs get police shield

kolkata: inadequate security has always been the bane of crime-infested south 24 parganas, but this does not seem to be a problem for politicians. a handful of these men and women enjoy police protection at the cost of the public exchequer, despite not holding any government portfolio. sources say that it has become a matter of prestige to be seen around with burly securitymen, putting a great strain on the meagre resources of the district police.there are six former cpm mlas here who continue to enjoy state security even after losing the elections. also under police protection are sanjay putatunda, shanti bhattacharya, ram shankar haldar, ashis ghosh, dilip sen and nepal saha, who have no other credentials other than being “cpm leaders�. shanti bhattacharya of sonarpur takes the cake. a mere office-bearer of a cpm frontal organisation on education – he does not hold any public office – bhattacharya has been provided with two security guards. he is also the father-in-law of a former cpm mla and chairman of a state government undertaking. apart from former mlas, those being guarded at public expenditure include former zilla parishad official ganesh mandal (cpm), former public accounts committee chairman satya bapuli (trinamul) and pathankhali (basanti) pradhan uma dolui (rsp). among the present mlas and ministers from the district, kanti ganguly and abdur rezzak mollah have been assigned four guards each. ballygunge mla rabin deb has also been provided with four men to guard him. from the trinamul camp, leader of the opposition pankaj banerjee and opposition chief whip sobhandeb chattopadhyay have been given two security personnel each. equally fortunate is sobhan chatterjee who is a member mayor-in-council in calcutta municipal corporation in-charge of water supply. trinamul leader pankaj banerjee feels that this is nothing short of a scandal. “we are compiling figures for other districts as well. “in salt lake, 780 security personnel have been deployed for vip duty, whereas rest of the planned city’s residents, covered by three police stations, are served by just 80 policemen,� he claimed. despite writing to the state government four times, no security has been provided to his party mlas who are also in need of security personnel, he said. “we do not take into account party affiliations before providing security,� said district police superintendent deb kumar ganguly. he, however, was silent as to why security must be provided to the leader of a cpm frontal organisation on education.