NEW DELHI, Aug 11:
A number of CAPF officers have written to Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his intervention to end alleged discrimination at the hands of IPS officers in getting their service benefits.
The officers of the five Central Armed Police Forces, also called paramilitary forces, have also launched a social media campaign, saying that despite a recent Supreme Court order and subsequent approval by the Union Cabinet, their headquarters are creating impediments in the process of granting them organised service benefits and sanction of more posts in supervisory ranks by reducing those manned by the IPS.
PTI has accessed a number of such official communications made to Shah where they seek his intervention to take “desirable action” so that their recruitment rules (RRs) are amended and a fresh cadre review is done in line with what is valid for a organised central service.
The framing of new RRs will allow these officers to have more positions in supervisory ranks, at present manned majorly by Indian Police Service (IPS) officers.
“A number of officers, who are unhappy by the obstructive manner of their supervisory IPS officers, have written to the home minister asking him to ensure that their financial and social upgrade is taken care of as this is directly linked to their morale.
“The officers have requested the minister to ensure the due service benefits to them announced recently, as boldly as a decision where he announced the abrogation of the Article 370, that gave special benefits to Jammu and Kashmir,” a senior CRPF cadre officer said.
He said the officers are making direct representations to Shah as despite a Union Cabinet approval, the headquarters of these forces are either going slow or are reluctant to finish proceedings that will give them full benefits, as this affects career prospects of IPS officers who join these forces on deputation.
A senior IPS officer, looking after these proceedings for cadre officers in one of the CAPFs, countered their contention, saying the revision of RRs is not being done immediately as some “clarificatory appeals” are pending in the Supreme Court.
“IPS is a central service and has an all-India service character. It needs to be given enough representation in central services as appropriate as their cadre strength.”
“However, it is the sincere effort of all the CAPFs to ensure that cadre officers get their dues as ordered by the Supreme Court and the recent government notification,” the IPS officer said requesting anonymity.
There are a number of recent instances that cadre officers say have”shaken their faith” in the fairness of the task being undertaken at their head offices.
All the boards, constituted to chart out the process for grant of these service benefits to cadre officers, in these forces are headed by an IPS officer which is a direct conflict of interest, an official said.
In the Border Security Force, a cadre officer resigned from the board saying the directive to not change RRs will be a “contempt” of the SC order while another officer objected to the manner in which the proceedings were being done in violation of court directive.
Few officers of the Central Reserve Police Force have gone to the apex court with writ petitions seeking orders for ordering of a fresh cadre review that will enable them more posts from the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) to the Additional Director General rank. (PTI)
PTI has seen these communications.
In other forces, similar differences have cropped up between cadre officers and those from the IPS, prompting the officers to shoot off individual pleas to the home minister as their headquarters are not listening to them, a senior Home Ministry official said.
“We are aware of these developments and a remedial action will be taken,” he said.
The Modi government, on July 3, had announced that the cadre officers of forces like CRPF, CISF, BSF, ITBP and SSB will be given the non-functional financial upgradation and will be categorised as an organised group A service.
This decision had come after a decade-long legal battle waged by the cadre officers seeking a level playing field and ending the dominance of IPS officers in their senior ranks.
The new order is meant to benefit about 11,000 serving cadre officers and a few thousand more who have retired since 2006 from the five CAPFs.
The apex court had in February upheld a Delhi High Court verdict on the subject and agreed that all the CAPF officers be recognised as “organised services”, saying it will remove stagnation, ensuring the promotion and other service-related benefits to officers in the same post.
These officers command units are deployed to undertake anti-Naxal operations, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency tasks, border guarding and they also render a variety of roles for maintenance of internal security and conduct of elections across the country. (PTI)
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