Army likely to hire, train officers for paramilitary

New Delhi: The government is actively considering an unprecedented and interesting proposal under which the Indian Army will recruit and train officers and jawans for the paramilitary forces and after utilising their services for five years before they are sent to join the paramilitary.

Mooted by the Army headquarters, the plan is being actively looked into by the ministry of defence (MoD) and the ministry of home affairs (MHA).

The Army is under the administrative control of the defence ministry while the home ministry is the mother ministry of India’s paramilitary forces also called the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs).

If approved, the policy will result in men serving their youngest and best years in the Army while ensuring an assured and regular supply of well-trained and disciplined troops for the CAPFs.

“The implementation of the proposal is contingent upon both MoD and MHA evolving a system of induction acceptable to both,” a parliamentary panel report on the issue has said. An earlier proposal of the Army for lateral induction of serving Army personnel into CAPFs after 7 years of colour service in the Army was turned down by the MHA.

CAPFs include Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Border Security Force (BSF), Assam Rifles, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the National Security Guard (NSG). India’s seven CAPFs have distinct mandates ranging from combating Maoists to insurgency in Kashmir and the Northeast, to guarding the border or protecting vital installations and undertaking surgical operations.

About 38% of the CAPFs are deployed in Maoist-affected states of central India, 26% in the Northeast region, 21% in Jammu and Kashmir, and the left 15% in the rest of the states.

At present, the CAPFs face a growing manpower problem with 27,862 personnel and officers having quit service either by way of voluntary retirement or through resignations during 2014-17, including 14,587 in 2017.

During the same period, a total of 190 CAPF men have laid down their lives while on active duty. The dead include 99 from the CRPF, 45 from the BSF, 41 from the Assam Rifles, four of the SSB and one from the ITBP force.

The last major incident where the paramilitary suffered big casualties was on Tuesday when nine CRPF men killed in a powerful IED blast by triggered by Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district.

Disparity in the pay and perks of CAPFs vis-a-vis the Army has been a sore point even though both of them operate and serve under similar working conditions most of the time.