Andhra Pradesh government has beefed up the security of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The Chief Minister's security will now be manned by anti-terror force Octopus.
A squad of 32 Octopus personnel divided into five teams would be part of Jagan’s security.
The Organisation for Counter Terrorist Operations (Octopus) is a specialised unit of Andhra Pradesh Police.
Reddy, who took over as the Chief Minister in May, already enjoys 'Z' category security.
While no reason was given for beefing up the Chief Minister's security, the move came a day after his statement in the state Assembly that Andhra Pradesh may have three state capitals. He hinted that Visakhapatnam and Kurnool could be the other capitals besides Amaravati.
The Chief Minister's move has triggered protests by the farmers, who had given 33,000 acres of land for development of Amaravati as the state capital in 2015.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday had hinted that the state may have a total of three capitals to keep up with the aspirations of the people. He said that three cities — Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool — may all be considered as the capitals and each will perform a different function.
Jagan said that Amaravati could be the legislative capital, Kurnool the judicial capital and Vizag the administrative capital.
While the Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu has slammed the move as a “Tuglaq” one, the BJP has welcomed the decision. Meanwhile, the CPI has called for an all-party meeting over the discussion of three capitals.
Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkatramiah clarified that though the government is inclined towards decentralisation, they would take a final call only after the expert committee submits its report. The government formed an expert committee earlier in November, headed by former IAS officer G Nageswara Rao to study the location of the capital.