Guwahati, Feb. 23: The Centre's assessment of security cover for VIPs/VVIPs has come under scanner with two-time former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today questioning the flip-flop on withdrawal of his NSG cover.

Mahanta has already moved Gauhati High Court seeking to know the ground on which the decision to withdraw his security cover was taken in January.

The high court on February 13 ordered the Centre to maintain a status quo on the Z-plus cover for Mahanta till further orders.

The Centre had also withdrawn the security cover of another chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, who had been enjoying NSG cover since 2007.

Before the court order, the Union home ministry had directed the CRPF to take up Gogoi and Mahanta's security from the NSG.

This afternoon, Mahanta said he moved court not because he was hankering after the NSG cover. "I want to know how this assessment is done and how. I would have been fine without the security cover had the Centre said that there was no threat, but I am not comfortable with the flip-flop over the issue," Mahanta said.

He was referring to the Centre's security assessment in December that the security cover provided to him continues and the one extended to Gogoi be withdrawn.

"In January, Gogoi wrote to the Union ministry of home affairs why his security cover was withdrawn seven months after he quit the chief minister's post when I continued to enjoy it even after 16 years of being a former chief minister, the home ministry responded by withdrawing my NSG cover soon after getting the letter," Mahanta said.

"My question is, on what basis were the decisions taken? How does the assessment change from month to month? If it was taken on the basis of the former chief minister's (Gogoi) letter, then they will also respond to the letter written by the current chief minister (Sarbananda Sonowal) and the AGP top brass to restore my security cover."

Mahanta said if there is no threat, he does not even need the CRPF cover provided to him.

"I leave my security to God and the people of Assam. I had not sought the security cover when it was first offered to me. I am not hankering after the cover, but I am concerned over the Centre's flip-flop on the issue. The Centre had withdrawn the cover once before in 2010, but it was restored by the court," he said.

On February 13, a central government official said the NSG is an "elite force for special purpose" and it is normally not in their mandate to provide security to "VIPs/individuals except highly-threatened ones" on the basis of "report" of central security agencies - something which Mahanta questioned today.

Mahanta was provided NSG cover after Ulfa militants made an abortive attempt on his life by setting off a powerful remote-controlled bomb near Kamakhya gate here in June 1997.