In a first ever, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with the chiefs of the Central paramilitary forces on Friday to review the internal security preparedness, perspective planning and bottlenecks in toning up operational output besides hearing the grievances of their personnel.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will also attend the meeting. This is the first such meeting being held by the Centre to hear directly from the Directors General of the paramilitary forces. The other similar conference where the PM participates is the DGPs conference organised annually by the Intelligence Bureau where the police chiefs of the State police and paramilitary forces are in attendance. But the paramilitary chiefs hardly get time to interact with the PM.
CRPF DG Prakash Mishra has been directed to coordinate with the chiefs of other forces for finalising the agenda of the meet.
While officials remained tightlipped about the agenda of the meet, sources said issues like increasing attrition of personnel, including cadre officers and their grievances are likely to be raised by the paramilitary bosses. Career progression, non-functional upgradation, non-functional selection grade, gaps in infrastructure, strategic planning, grievance redressal mechanism and an organised service status for the cadre officers are also likely to be raised during the high level meet.
Studies conducted by Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis have underscored the stressful working conditions, long separation from family, stagnation and lack of promotional avenues as the major factors negatively affecting the forces’ personnel and their operational output.
Cadre officers, insiders said, are suffering from “reducing seniority syndrome” as they stagnate for years together even as their counterparts from the Indian Police Service (IPS) deputed in these forces overtake them within few years. Cadre officers from 1984-batch in the BSF continue to languish in the post but the IPS officers of the same batch are deputed as Additional Director Generals. Similar situation prevails in the CRPF and other paramilitary forces. likewise, jawans in these forces get their first promotion after over two decades.