Patna: In a state with a population of around 11 crore where just 78,000 police personnel are in service, leading to thin presence of the men in khaki on streets and slackness in policing, 1,195 of them are serving as bodyguards to IAS and IPS officers.

At present, there are around 200 IAS and 180 IPS officers posted in the state, which makes the average number of bodyguards for them to around three for each officer.

However, the state government asserted in the Legislative Council on Thursday that providing bodyguards to IAS and IPS officers has not led to scarcity of personnel, and had no negative impact on law-and-order situation.

The issue was broached in the Upper House as MLC Nawal Kishore Yadav raised a short-notice question asking about details of bodyguards to bureaucrats, and whether it has led to decline in the strength of police units.

Replying on behalf of the government, energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said police bodyguards were provided to Bihar cadre IAS and IPS officers and also those in the judicial services.

"At present, 1,195 personnel have been deputed as bodyguards to IAS and IPS officials. There is no impact on the strength of police units due to this," Bijendra said.

The largest concentration of these bodyguards is in Patna as it also serves as the state headquarters and the top brass of IAS and IPS is posted here. Altogether 225 personnel are deputed to them here.

When it comes to their zone-wise distribution, the Patna zone, which includes 11 districts, has 447 police bodyguards protecting bureaucrats, as per information provided by Bijendra.