Amid continuing surge in Covid cases, CRPF chief Kuldiep Singh has tasked the commandants of various formations across the States to liaise with the State police to hand over seized Remdesivir injections, oxygen concentrators and oxygen cylinders on "zimmanama" basis for use by the paramilitary in these "trying times."
Due to the onslaught of the pandemic, the CRPF has also halted all training courses that begin in May.
Following reports of black marketing of these essentials required for Covid patient management, State police forces and law enforcement agencies across the country have raided and seized these items.
These precious lifesaving drugs and equipment, lying with police forces, can be used by the force to save the lives of the paramilitary personnel, officials said.
Through a communication on Friday, the CRPF has also sought a consolidated report of action taken by the offices under different operational jurisdiction by May 13 for perusal of the Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
The communication that has been sent to all the sectors and zones/formations has also underscored the need to treat the matter as a top priority and monitor the progress, they said.
Meanwhile, the CRPF has postponed all training courses, in view of the spread of Covid-19, scheduled to commence this month till further orders. The new dates for commencement of the training courses will be intimated in due course to all the training institutions under the paramilitary.
As on Saturday, a total of 20,106 CRPF personnel contracted Covid-19, including 228 cases during the last 24 hours. Of this, 17, 498 men have recovered and the paramilitary suffered 105 deaths due to the viral disease. The CRPF had 2,503 active cases in its ranks till Saturday.
Till Saturday, as many as 69,852 Central paramilitary personnel, including those of the CRPF, have been infected with Covid-19.
Out of this, 60,549 patients have recovered from the disease. The combined death toll across the paramilitary forces was 264 during the period. A total of 9,037 personnel across the Forces continue to be active cases.
Besides the CRPF, other paramilitary forces hit by Covid are the Border Security Force (BSF), Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), National Security Guards (NSG) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
A Deputy Inspector General of the CRPF and a Commanding Officer (CO) of the Border Security Force (BSF) have succumbed to Covid-19 this week. Another CO of the CRPF hit by the novel coronavirus is critical, sources said.
A section of officials in the CRPF feel the liaison with the State police should have been undertaken by the senior officials in the rank of Inspectors General, most of whom are IPS officers from various State cadres on Central deputation, for better outcome of the move aimed at offsetting the shortage of the vital medicines and equipment for management of Covid cases.
While the CRPF has a medical set of its own for treatment of its personnel through a range of field and composite hospitals, the CPRF has been stretched too far from crowd control in the first wave to conducting elections in the midst of the second wave in the recently concluded Assembly polls in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, they added.