Apparently very concerned about the safety and special status of dignitaries visiting the state, the Maharashtra government withdrew over Rs3.5 crore from the contingency fund for buying an armoured and a non-armoured Mercedes vehicles for those visiting the city.

In the supplementary statement of expenditure presented to the legislature on Monay, the state government stated that it is necessary to provide highly secured vehicles to such dignitaries, considering the special status of these guests.

As much as Rs3,68,36,000 was withdrawn from the fund.

According to the state government, they currently have bullet proof vehicles such as Tata Safaris and Ambassadors among other vehicles that are provided to dignitaries such as the president, vice president, prime minister and foreign dignitaries. However, it has decided that the status of these dignitaries entitles them Mercedes armoured and non-armoured vehicles.

Interestingly, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was determined that there were no vehicles available in India that were safe enough to drive their prime minister Stephen Harper around during his recent visit to India. Because of this, the Canadian government had flown an armoured Cadillac and an SUV, in which the prime minister was driven in to the Taj Mahal.

The Canadian government had even spent a large sum of money transporting the two vehicles to India in a C-17 Globemaster.

Justifying the elaborate measures taken, officials of the Canadian government had referred to the attacks in Mumbai in 2008 and said that the prime minister’s security could not be compromised.

Moreover, the state government is said to have decided to upgrade chief minister Prithviraj Chavan’s security. The new plan, according to reports, will be modelled along the lines of the security cover provided to the prime minister at South Block in New Delhi.@sanjeevdevasia