After her spat with Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut over comments on Mumbai city, actor Kangana Ranaut was offered Y-plus security by the Home Ministry of India.
What this basically means is, that she will be given protection by 11 CRPF commandos. However, it’s on rotational basis. At a time, 2 are meant to provide her with mobile security, while 1 guards her house.
While we are on the topic, let’s try and understand the Y-plus security and how it functions a little better.
Y-plus security is given to VIPs by the central government, after the inputs from intelligence agencies: Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
These agencies inform the government about the potential threat to the life of the personality in question, and based on that assessment, things are taken further.
Here, it is important to note that political leaders like the PM (and their immediate family) and the Home Minister can get even the highest level of security just by the virtue of their posts.
Now, coming to the cost. For Kangana, it’s most likely none. Y-plus is the third level of security for which the government pays from its own pocket.
Now, while the exact allocation of money for individual protection is not known, some idea can be derived from the fact that CRPF’s budget for 2020-2021 is ₹26,000 crore. And it uses 7.5 per cent of its strength for the purpose of providing security to the VIPs.
The government can ask individuals to pay for it. Like it did in the case of Mukesh Ambani, asking him to pay ₹15 lakh/month, but how much money Kangana is putting in, if at all, is a top-level secret.
The cost of Y-plus security comes from the money put into salary, food, travel and accomodation of the commandos.