The security cover of former Tripura CM Biplab Deb has been reduced, a senior police officer said on Monday, with the move coming days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader stepped down as the chief minister of the northeastern state. “Three vehicles were withdrawn from his convoy with effect from May 21. Now, we are providing a four-vehicle cover to him, maintaining all security parameters and threat perception,” the officer said.
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However, Deb, continues to get the ‘Z’-category security cover provided to him by the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA), the officer added.
On May 20, six days after the BJP leader's resignation, Congress MLA and former BJP legislator, Sudip Barman, claimed that the former was running a ‘parallel administration’ to Manik Saha, the incumbent CM, and urged Tripura chief secretary and police chief to withdraw Deb's ‘excess’ security cover.
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“We wonder how the former chief minister is staying in CM residence amidst heavy security, and uses choppers even now. I demand that the chief secretary and DGP estimate and recover expenditures spent on him since the new CM assumed office, and also withdraw the excess security. People will not let him leave the state without getting answers from him for his wrongdoings during his tenure,” Barman told media in Agartala.
{{/usCountry}}“We wonder how the former chief minister is staying in CM residence amidst heavy security, and uses choppers even now. I demand that the chief secretary and DGP estimate and recover expenditures spent on him since the new CM assumed office, and also withdraw the excess security. People will not let him leave the state without getting answers from him for his wrongdoings during his tenure,” Barman told media in Agartala.
{{/usCountry}}Also Read | Biplab Deb's removal brings Tripura BJP's internal rift out in the open
Biplab Deb served as the saffron party's first chief minister in Tripura, and his abrupt resignation came at a time when the next state polls are less than a year away. In February 2018, the BJP, along with its ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), brought to an end the Left's 25-year-long rule in the state.
(With PTI inputs)
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