File Photo: Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh
Daughters of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have decided to give up the security cover provided to them by elite Special Special Protection Guard (SPG).
After assessment of their security and a decision to continue the SPG cover for another year till May 2016, the two daughters - Upinder Singh and Daman Singh - have communicated verbally to the SPG officials requesting for discontinuing the protection by the elite force.
The SPG commandos have since been withdrawn from the security of Ms Daman, a writer by profession, and the process for taking out the SPG cover for her sister, Dr Upinder, who is
Professor in Delhi University, is on, official sources said.
"We had made a request and it has been withdrawn," says Ms Daman whose husband is an IPS officer. They are, however, provided with a cover of Delhi Police as a precautionary measure.
"At present they are still there but we have already told them to withdraw it. This will be done after completing the required procedures," Dr Upinder, a professor of History at Delhi University, told PTI.
After necessary formalities, SPG will be replaced by Delhi Police, the sources said.
SPG, a force carved out from various para-military and state police forces, was formed in 1988 by an act of Parliament for "providing proximate security to the Prime Minister and former Prime Ministers and members of their immediate families. The need for such a force was felt after assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.
Dr Singh's another daughter Amrit Singh stays in the US and was provided with SPG cover whenever she visited India.
However, now she will be provided with Delhi Police cover.
As per rules, former Prime Ministers and their immediate family members cannot get the SPG cover beyond a year of leaving office unless a yearly assessment on their threat perception warrants it.
The elite force has six protectees now - Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former PMs Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Vadra.