Ensure jawans get to stay with family for 100 days annually — Shah to CAPFs

[caption id="attachment_277681" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Amit Shah[/caption] New Delhi, Oct. 17 (PTI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah has directed the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) like CRPF, BSF and others to undertake a mega manpower planning and ensure that around 7 lakh jawans get to spend at least 100 days with their families in a year, officials said on Thursday. They said Shah was given a presentation last month about the functioning of the CAPFs in the ministry, following which he directed that the deployment details of the troops of these forces should be "digitised" so that better manpower rationalisation can be done. The Union Home Ministry has now asked all the chiefs or Directors General (DG) of forces like CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and Assam Rifles to undertake the exercise and implement a regime where a jawan or a constable gets to stay with his family for about 100 days, the officials said. This means that the jawans will be posted to their nearest units and they can travel and stay with their families when there are no operational exigencies, a senior official said. In order to achieve this, he said the force chiefs have been asked to assess and prepare reports of their additional manpower so that the over-all deployment of a CAPF unit is not affected. When this data is digitised, as compared to the regular paper file format prevalent as of now, it will be easy for the force headquarters to rotate and deploy their troops. This system will also help in ensuring that a large grievance of personnel regarding their transfer and posting to a place near to their parents or family home will be addressed up to a limit, he said. The forces have been given a deadline of two months to accomplish the task, the official said. Former Border Security Force chief K K Sharma has told PTI last year that an average jawan of his force only gets to spend about 2.5 months (about 75 days) in a year with his family and if one has a service of about 30 years, then this figure comes to about five years in the entire job period.

MHA directs CAPFs to adopt 'swadeshi' goods in canteens, office 

The Union Home Ministry has directed all CAPFs or paramilitary forces to shun foreign brands and introduce 'swadeshi' goods, including food items, household goods and clothing, in their canteens and offices, officials said on Thursday. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also decided to enhance the monetary grant to the countrywide network of over 1,700 Central Police Canteens (CPCs) as it has turned down the plea of these forces and paramilitary veterans who were seeking an exemption under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for these stores. An official order by the ministry said 'swadeshi' should be made available in these canteens, food items, clothes and accoutrements for khaki and combat uniform, bed sheets, towels, curtains, stationery and all other miscellaneous items. While new procurement of these items should be 'swadeshi' or countrymade, the order said, existing items should be replaced with the same when they are due for replacement. "The order is aimed to boost the income and status of local producers of these goods. This is to promote indigenous products and industry. These forces are about 10 lakh personnel strong at present and they procure canteen items and goods worth crores of rupees annually," a senior official said. The ministry has also directed that instead of seeking rebate on GST for the CPCs -- that stock groceries, fast moving consumer goods and household essentials for purchase by troops -- the Union government will "compensate the CPCs through budgetary support to that extent", the official said. The defence canteens (canteen stores department) of army, navy and the air force enjoy exemption under the GST. These forces and CAPF veterans have been demanding GST exemption for these CPCs so that the personnel working in very hard duty areas and inhospitable terrain like borders and Naxal-affected areas can procure household items at nominal rates and the new arrangement devised by the MHA will ensure that the rates and stocks remain satisfactory as in the past, he said.