No security tents for VIP homes: Punjab and Haryana HC

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court set an example by directing the administration to remove the ugly khaki and green security tents outside that dot the fronts of homes of judges, and then ordered a similar clearing from the homes of all top bureaucrats and politicians across the city.



The tents had come up in the 1980s and 90s when Punjab was in the grips of militancy. But long after the situation turned normal, the security paraphernalia was kept alive as a status symbol.



On Friday, at least 75 security pavilions were removed in the green belt of the city designed by Le Corbusier. Of these, 60 were occupied by securitymen of Punjab ministers and MLAs and three by the Haryana government.



The Punjab and Haryana high court\'s order to remove security tents from the times of militancy from the homes of politicians and bureaucrats met with opposition within hours of the move on Friday. Surjeet Kaur Bhalla, wife of former Punjab CM Surjeet Singh Barnala, said the action was uncalled for.



\"The arrangement was made due to security considerations. I will soon find out about others whose tents have been removed and lodge a protest,\" she said. By way of example, the court had ordered the junking of tents in front of judges\' homes on Thursday. By 10am on Friday, 75 such pavilions were removed. The court then proceeded to order the clearing of tents outside politicians\' and officials\' homes. Twelve of the tents were at the homes of officials of the Chandigarh union territory administration.



The issue of tents in the \"green belt\" of Chandigarh was hanging fire since 2009 when a single-judge bench of the high court took suo motu note of illegal encroachment of government land and parks outside politicians\' homes by security staff, most of which had come up during the years of militancy.



Justice Ranjit Singh of the HC on July 6, 2009 had issued a notice to the Chandigarh administration asking its officials to conduct a survey to check such encroachment, but nothing was done, likely because of the resistance from the powerful people of the city.



When the matter came up for hearing on Friday before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Mahesh Grover, the Chandigarh administration said it had removed all the tents outside judges\' houses. Once the compliance report was heard, the court ordered the removal of all other tents.



The court was also informed that six tents pitched outside the homes of Punjab officials could not be removed for want of permission from the Union home ministry as these were occupied by CRPF and ITBP personnel.



Hearing this, bench directed the authorities to get the approval for the removal of these tents and inform the court on Tuesday.



Times View



The chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court has shown the way and we hope others will follow suit. Indeed, governments should take note and not wait for courts to pass similar orders to act. It is not our case that nobody needs security cover, though there can be doubts about how many of those with such cover actually need it. If the idea is to protect people rather than just provide them a status symbol, there is no reason why security has to be so in-your-face or so much of an inconvenience to the public at large. The entire world today lives with the harsh reality of threats to those in public life, but they have found more discreet but no less effective ways of dealing with them.
News From: http://www.7StarNews.com