The much-awaited Seventh Pay Commission report has left the paramilitary forces, whose concerns have remained largely unaddressed, high and dry.
In June 2013, Uttarakhand experienced the worst floods in its history. More than 5,000 people were killed. Bodies of thousands are yet to be recovered. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the primary force deployed along the undefined and difficult China border, was the first to respond to the catastrophe. But most people, including the national media, were oblivious to their exemplary work. It was only when the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) were pressed into action that the disaster made it to the national headlines.
As a correspondent, I closely followed the ITBP’s rescue operations in the Kedarnath valley. I remember getting calls from friends and family lauding the Army’s work. They identified camouflage uniform only with the Army. They had not even heard of a force called ITBP.
It would be no exaggeration to say that the ITBP struggled to get its due. It was only after persistent efforts by the then Director-General of ITBP Ajay Chaddha that the force started making news. Mr. Chaddha took upon himself the task of briefing the media at his Delhi office twice a day. The idea was not to compete with any force but to get due recognition for hundreds of his jawans who relentlessly carried on the rescue work with meagre resources. At one point of time, the ITBP jawans were even asked to cremate the dead — a suggestion that was summarily struck down by Mr. Chaddha. Other Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), better known as the paramilitary forces, also struggle to get the recognition they deserve.
The 9.8 lakh force has a pressing reason to feel ‘left out’ now. The much awaited Seventh Pay Commission, which submitted its report last week, has left the personnel high and dry. Already, social media is abuzz, with the personnel sending chain messages through WhatsApp, in the hope of being heard. While reams have been dedicated to the rivalry between the Indian Administrative Service and other services like the Indian Police Service, Indian Revenue Service, etc., the concerns of the paramilitary personnel have remained largely unaddressed.
Poor cousins
What has really irked them? The Pay Commission has placed the CAPFs in the same category as that of “civil employees.” Often treated as the poor cousins of the defence forces, their service conditions have seen a paradigm shift over the years. One will find a Border Security Force jawan posted at the Pakistan border one day, the next he would be battling IEDs and bullets in the red corridor.
Except the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), all other CAPFs — the BSF, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), ITBP — are deployed along the border. This is in addition to their other functions which include VIP security, law and order and election duty.
Since Independence, 22,250 Army personnel have lost their lives in different battles, while 33,678 CAPF jawans have been killed in the line of duty.
The CAPFs have been demanding a special pay on the lines of the Military Special Pay (MSP) and the withdrawal of the contributory pension scheme. Both the demands have not been agreed to by the Commission. The special pay allowance would have made a CAPF jawan richer by Rs 48,000 annually.
While rejecting the proposal, the Commission said: “The Commission has taken a conscious decision that the Military Service Pay will be admissible to the three defence forces personnel alone… unique elements that distinguish the three Defence services from others making them the sole category of personnel which would be eligible for MSP.”
There is a silver lining though. The Commission has recommended that CAPF officers should get “sufficient opportunity to man senior positions in their organisations.”
The CAPFs are headed by IPS officers, leaving them with low promotion opportunities. It is rare for a CAPF officer who starts his career as an Assistant Commandant — a group A post — to reach the level of even an Additional Director General, let alone Director-General. Most of them retire awaiting their turn as all these posts are reserved for IPS officers. The Commission has recommended that the percentage of posts earmarked for IPS officers be reviewed and thrown open to CAPF officers as well. The Commission has also suggested that an IPS officer should join at the Commandant level, and spend at least five years in a paramilitary force to be eligible to lead it. If accepted, the recommendation will throw open a plethora of opportunities for CAPF officers.
A CAPF officer said the per capita expenditure on pay and allowances for the forces was the lowest at Rs 2.97 lakh, while it was Rs 3.24 lakh for defence personnel and Rs 34.95 lakh for External Affairs employees.
Even though many CAPF jawans die in the battlefield, be it in Naxal operations or shelling from across the border, the government does not accord them the status of a ‘martyr.’ In 2014 alone, 350 CAPF personnel were killed in the line of duty.
However, when an Army jawan dies in similar circumstances, his name is prefixed with the word “shaheed”(martyr). “How is a CAPF personnel’s death lesser than that of an Army jawan? We are not comparing ourselves with the Army but why this discrimination? One can never compensate death but why be stingy with recognition?” asked a CAPF commandant.
Since he took charge as Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh has twice visited areas with Maoist presence — once each in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. On both occasions, he promised the jawans that hardship allowance would be enhanced. Disparity exists here as well. A jawan posted in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas gets a lesser amount of hardship allowance compared to a jawan posted in insurgency-hit Jammu and Kashmir or the North-East. Mr. Singh sought to bring uniformity to this but the promise is yet to be delivered. Last heard, the proposal was stuck in the Finance Ministry. It is time the government translated intent into action. The serving paramilitary personnel, along with retired ones and their family, are also a huge vote-bank, which would be inadvisable for the government to neglect.
