AP CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to be guarded by OCTOPUS

Security for Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has been upgraded. The Chief Minister’s security will now be handled by anti-terror force OCTOPUS. 32 Octopus personnel, divided into five teams, would be part of the Chief Minister’s security entourage. The Organisation for Counter Terrorist Operations (OCTOPUS) is a specialised unit of Andhra Pradesh Police. Reasons for upgrading security to the YSRCP leader have not been mentioned yet. Previously, Chief Minister YS Jagan had ‘Z’ category security which has been upgraded to OCTOPUS now.

It has been an eventful week for the Chief Minister who announced in the Assembly that the government is considering three capital cities for Andhra Pradesh. He hinted that Visakhapatnam and Kurnool could be the executive and judicial capitals respectively in addition to Amaravati, which would be the legislative capital. Farmers surrounding Amaravati who had given 33,000 acres of land for development of the city as the state capital in 2015 protested against the move.

The decision also garnered criticism from the TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkatramiah clarified that the government would take a final call only after the expert committee submits its report, which is expected to be submitted in a week. The government in November formed an expert committee which is headed by former IAS officer G Nageswara Rao to study about the ideal location for the state capital.