Agartala, September 11 (TIWN): Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, known for his Spartan lifestyle and extreme low assets, spent over Rs. 1.95 crore for his personal security in the last financial year. The figures rested at Rs. 1.60 crores in 2012. Highly placed sources in the state police said that the expenses are further on the rise in the current financial year.
A highly placed source in the state police today said that the Chief Minister, known for his nationally acclaimed poverty and Spartan lifestyle, was increasingly growing paranoid of security threat possibilities since the past five years.

Chief Minister Sarkar was experiencing frequent trances of insecurity as average expenses in the Chief Minister’s security detail keeps rising, the source informed.

“His security expenditures have been constantly rising all these years. A total of Rs. 1,95,29,523 in 2013, straight from Rs. 1,60,81,501 in the previous financial year. The figures are on the rise this year”, he said.

Reacting to the issue, former opposition leader and veteran Congress MLA Ratan Lal Nath today said that the incumbent Chief Minister was detached from the people for years now.

“His predecessor and political mentor ex-chief minister Nripen Chakraborty used to be close to people in hills and plains alike. Unlike him, the incumbent CM chooses to stay indoors or within heavy security cordon whenever he chooses to walk out in public. Democracy doesn’t work this way”, Nath said.

A senior official in the state police said that the CM recently ordered bags to carry his very own ‘safe drinking water’ from his quarters everywhere he moved, and luxuriously priced glasses and nutrition supplements. “These are but examples of how his personal lifestyle shot sky high in the past few years. There are a hundred other things”, the source said.