New Delhi: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government approving the proposal to grant the status of organised cadre services to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) Wednesday, many of its officers say that the tyrannical dominance of IPS officers will finally come to an end.
Months after the Supreme Court ruled that officers from these forces will be granted Non-Functional Financial Upgradation (NFFU) and other pay benefits, which their counterparts in all ‘Group A’ organised services are entitled to, the Union Cabinet finally gave its nod to the proposal.
The move will give several benefits to the officers of the CAPFs and allow them to lead their officers.
ThePrint spoke to several CAPF officers to find out what the move means to them.
“A decade-old tyranny of the Indian Police Service has ended,” said a CRPF officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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The Cabinet decision
“The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the proposal for Grant of Organized Group ‘A’ Service (OGAS) to Group ‘A’ Executive Cadre Officers of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and extension of benefit of Non-Functional Financial Upgradation (NFFU) and Non-Functional Selection Grade (NFSG),” a PIB statement said Wednesday.
After the Supreme Court ruling to this effect in February this year, the Cabinet nod was inevitable, but its ramifications for these forces are far-reaching.
Currently, all the CAPFs except for the Assam Rifles are headed by IPS officers, an arrangement that many said was unfair. This is likely to be upended with the recent Cabinet decision.
“We will finally be able to rise up the ranks in our own forces…This will be a huge morale booster for all the CAPFs in the country,” said the CRPF officer quoted in the beginning, speaking on background.
Even the positions of Additional and Special Director Generals (SDGs) are mostly reserved for the IPS, the officer explained.
According to the Department of Personnel and Training rules, in ‘Group A’ organised services, appointments up to the position of SDG can take place only through promotion from the cadre and lateral entry or appointment through deputation is only permissible if the former is not possible, the officer said.
According to many officers, while the IPS officers would come to these forces at the top levels, they had limited experience in handling conflict situations, which forces like the CRPF, BSF etc. routinely encounter.
“Their experience is managing general law and order or investigations…They are not equipped at all to deal with the conflict and insurgency situations we deal with,” said the officer.
“A lot of times when CRPF troops get killed, it is also because their IPS bosses have no idea about how the force works…They are just paradropped on us,” the officer added.
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‘A humiliating experience’
Earlier known as the paramilitary forces, the CAPFs include the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Border Security Force (BSF), the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Assam Rifles (AR), the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the National Security Guard (NSG).
While NFFU — which entails that if all the officers of a particular batch have not climbed up the ladder due to lack of vacancies but only one does, the others are automatically entitled to financial upgradation at par with the one who has been promoted — was granted to all ‘Group A’ organised services in 2009, it was denied to officers of the CAPFs by arguing that they are not organised services.
“The government’s argument was flawed from the beginning because there is no definition of an organised service available with the government,” said a senior CRPF officer on condition of anonymity.
“On what basis were they telling the court that we are not organised if they don’t know what organised means?”
In May this year, the government constituted a high-level expert committee to suggest a clear definition of Organised ‘Group A’ Service.
“It was not just about NFFU…They used this ‘not organised’ argument against us to deny us our rightful promotions and career aspirations,” the officer said.
“The truth is that the humiliation that the CAPFs were made to experience at their hands was worse than what Indians faced by Britishers,” the CRPF officer added, referring to the government and Home Minisitry that is manned by IAS and IPS officers.
“They had a vested interest in denying us the status of organised services since IPS officers wanted to keep heading our forces and get plum postings here, and the IAS officers wanted to keep IPS out of the central government by letting them head other agencies and CAPFs,” the officer, who has 31 years of service in CRPF, said. “It was all a very well thought-out strategy.”
According to a BSF officer, there was disparity in terms of the accommodations, hotels, flight tickets, etc. too.
“Even our children would wonder why we are treated like second-class citizens by the government when we are always fighting for the country in the worst kind of situations,” the officer said.
Another CRPF officer said that there are “massive vacancies in IPS across the country”.
“Then why do they not want to do what they are meant to do in their state cadres? Why are they so interested in coming to the CAPFs?” the officer asked. “It’s obviously because they get plum postings here.”
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‘Odds were stacked against us’
Several retired CAPF officers said they could not rise up to the top in their careers because it was inevitably an IPS officer who would be chosen to lead them.
“We are selected by the UPSC and are highly trained in our own professions, but the moment we would reach the level of DIG, we would be overlooked for the sake of IPS officers who have no experience in our areas,” recalled Mohinder Malhi, who retired as an Inspector General in the BSF in 2011.
He had joined the service in 1973, but was appointed as the IG only in 2009 and that too just for two years.
“I had experience (of working) in the toughest areas in Assam, Kashmir etc. But at policy level, my contribution was limited because of this absurd arrangement,” Malhi said. “That’s because all the odds were stacked against us.”