Union Home Minister Amit Shah has asked all central armed police forces to compile three-year data and inform his ministry if their jawans and officers are utilising their stipulated leave as part of his ambitious proposal that aims at allowing troops spend at least 100 days with their families in a year. The home ministry has directed these forces to depute a senior officer in the rank of an additional director general (in-charge of human resources) to submit a report in this context by the first week of next month.
The Central Armed Police Forces or paramilitary forces include the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and the SSB. The directive is also valid for the Assam Rifles that functions under the administrative command of the home ministry. The move was aimed to reduce stress and enhance the happiness quotient of these personnel who work in harsh climatic conditions and long schedule, even as these forces battle regular cases of suicides and fratricidal killings. The home ministry has now sought a point-wise data of leave being granted to personnel from these forces for the current year, last year and 2018 in order to find out if the comparative situation is improving over the years and also if the home minister’s proposal is being implemented on the ground.
The forces have now been asked to inform the ministry about their total strength; the number of personnel eligible for availing a total of 75 days leaves in a year; personnel who were able to consume all the 75 days leave; those who availed leave between 60-74 days and those who could only utilise 45-59 days leave during a year. An average CAPF jawan or officer gets a total of 75 days leave quota and this limit goes up or down in case of specific operational requirements, hard area deployment and posting in remote areas.
Shah had mooted the plan in October last year and had directed the CAPFs to implement it by undertaking a mega manpower planning. Following this, a seven-member panel of officers from these forces was created with a two-point terms of reference: (I) to design a software for digitisation of the deployment of the personnel and (ii) propose changes, if any, in service conditions/standard operating procedures of the force in order to give effect to the above (point no 1) objective. It was being planned that in order to implement the 100-day leave plan, the jawans and officers will be posted at units close to their home town or where their family lives so that they can travel and stay with their families when there are no operational exigencies.
