love and power has no limit, especially when it comes to showcasing it. With no provision in the State, Himachal Pradesh Assembly secretariat has sought a pilot escort vehicle for the Speaker, bringing him at par with Governor and Chief Minister, who are currently entitled to such vehicles.

If the Speaker gets a pilot escort vehicle, then he will become the first Speaker of the State to enjoy such a facility. looking at the threat perception Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court is also being given the vehicle.

The tradition of granting pilot escort vehicle to Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court started since the time of then Chief Justice VK Gupta, who was granted the vehicle for the first time on the very basis of threat perception.

As per provisions, any VVIP apart from the Chief Minister and Governor can be given the pilot escort vehicles based on the threat perception analysed by the police.

Speaker is currently under zero threat perception and with no other provisions available, police have referred the demand of the Assembly Secretariat to home department seeking further directions. 

Under the protocol hierarchy, Speaker comes after the Governor as well as the Chief Minister and is followed by the Chief Justice of High Court.

"My contention is that when my juniors in protocol hierarchy list can get pilot escort vehicle then why the Assembly Speaker can't get it. This is a matter in which State Government has to take a decision,” said Assembly Speaker Brij Biharilal Butail.

He, however, said that Assembly Secretariat is currently pursuing the matter and may have written to the State Government.

DGP B Kamal Kumar said that he had received a letter from Assembly Secretariat and has forwarded it to the home department for further directions on the matter.

The matter has taken a sour turn, when Kangra SP Balbir Singh Thakur was recently issued a show cause notice by the Assembly Secretariat for refusing to grant the escort vehicles for the tour of Speaker in his Palampur constituency of Kangra district.

According to sources, when the demand was put up by the OSD of Speaker to the Kangra SP, he refused to provide it citing non-availability and instead provided bike escorts, which has likely to have offended the Speaker.

The Kangra SP, in his written reply to the show-cause notice, had briefed the factual situation and provisions to the Assembly Secretary; the matter is still said to be under consideration.