Times of India: New Delhi: Tuesday, September
11, 2018.
Delhi Police spends Rs 50 crore annually
on hiring vehicles for VIP security, a reply to an RTI query has revealed. As
many as 400 vehicles are hired for VIP security, Delhi Police have said in its
reply. A majority of these vehicles are eight years old.
Delhi Police could have well bought its
own fleet of vehicles for VIP security with the money that it spent on hiring
the cars in the last eight years. In response to the query raised by RTI
activist Zeeshan Haider, Delhi Police said they have spent Rs 3.6 billion from
2010 till date on hiring vehicles. Most of these vehicles are used by Delhi
police’s security unit which is assigned the task of VIP security.
Delhi Police spent Rs 52.7 crore in the
financial year 2016-17 on hiring these vehicles. The highest expenditure in the
last eight years was incurred in 2013-14 when Rs 58.2 crore was spent on car
rentals by Delhi Police.
The contract for hiring the vehicles has
been with a Dwarka-based firm for the last 10 years, Delhi Police said.
The firm has rented out 200 Maruti
Gypsies of 2010 make, 50 Gypsies of 2017 make, 100 Maruti Ertigas of 2017 make
and 50 Innovas of 2013 make to Delhi Police. While the old model Gypsies fetch
a daily rent of Rs 2,400 each, the same for newer models is higher.
A retired IPS officer who had served the
security unit told NBT that most of the pilot and escort vehicles deployed in
VIP security are hired ones. Most of these VIPs have been provided Z or Z-plus
security.