Chief Minister V D Satheesan refuses guard of honour

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister V D Satheesan refuses a guard of honour provided by the police during official visits. The chief minister directly informed the police chief Ravada Chandrasekhar about this. His stand is that when the police are facing a shortage of officers, there is no need to deploy the force for functions.

This is a function in which police officers stand in line to receive the chief minister on official occasions to show respect. This is a formal and ceremonial honor given by the army or police to receive and show respect to distinguished individuals such as the Prime Minister, other heads of state, and military chiefs.

The chief minister had earlier directed to avoid large convoys and over-security vehicles that would cause inconvenience to the people during their travels. The instruction was that no other vehicles should be used except pilot and escort. He instructed the top police officers not to cause inconvenience to the people and not to block the roads for the chief minister's journey. Despite the demand to avoid the escort, the police are of the stand that it could not be done due to security reasons.