Imphal, April 26: The Manipur government has strengthened the security cover of all ministers and legislators ahead of the month-end deadline set by a rebel outfit to resolve the script issue.

The banned Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) last week issued death threats to all ministers and legislators, warning that the outfit would start targeting them from May 1 if the Secular Progressive Front government failed to take steps to replace Bengali with the Meitei Mayek script by April 30. The outfit also threatened to target the officials of the education department.

?Adequate precautionary measures have been taken to foil attempts by militants on the elected representatives of the people. We have also strengthened the security cover by augmenting the number of guards of the VIPs,? director general of police A.K. Parashar said today.

Sources said the 60 legislators and three MPs have been provided security guards. The number of security guards of people listed in the Z (security threat) category has been augmented.

?We are aware of the death threat issued by the militant group against the ministers and MLAs and also the officials of the education department. The government is taking the threat very seriously,? the police officer said.

Police have intensified patrolling in and around Imphal, where most of the vital installations are situated. The government has instructed all police stations to completely sensitise the routes along which VIPs travel well ahead of the tour schedule.

?We have given proper briefing to all unit commanders. They were told to take measures wherever necessary and to leave nothing to chance. Changes in the deployment of CRPF personnel have also been affected in view of the security threat,? the DGP said.

The chief minister?s assurance at the Khongjom Day function on April 23 that the government was trying to find a formula for the script switch has failed to appease the outfit. The day is observed every year in the memory of the Manipuri heroes of Anglo-Manipuri war of 1891.

The police department came in for sharp criticism from the public after members of the Meitei Erol Eyek Loinasillon Apunba Lup, which is spearheading the script movement, torched the state?s oldest library and the railway reservation counters.

Sources said requests for 24-hour deployment of armed guards have come to the police department from state and central government offices after the twin arson. Ibobi Singh shuffled the state?s 10 superintendents of police, additional SPs and one India Reserve Battalion commander yesterday.