New Delhi, Aug 22:
The Union Home Ministry has formed a six-member committee to prepare final modalities for granting the recently announced government benefits of better pay and service benefits to CAPF officers, said officials on Thursday. The committee, headed by a director-level officer, has been asked to “ensure processing and completion of all proposals” by September 30. The latest order is seen in the backdrop of a number of officers writing to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking his intervention, and launching a social media campaign claiming that despite a Supreme Court order and subsequent approval by the Union Cabinet, their headquarters were delaying these benefits to them. PTI had reported about the contents of a number of such letters earlier this month. The ministry, recently, also asked the chiefs of all the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) to send in their proposals without any delay to it else it would be considered a contempt of the top court’s order that has asked it to accomplish the task by September-end
MHA constitutes
. The officers will take stock of all such proposals of non-financial functional upgradation (NFFU) and non-functional selection grade (NFSG) received by various sections…and will prepare force-wise proposals after scrutiny of records and place them before the screening committee for final deliberation,” an August 21 order, accessed by the news agency, said. The direction has been issued by the Police-II division of the ministry that looks after the affairs of the CAPFs. A difference of opinion had also cropped up between these officers and those from the IPS with regard to framing of new recruitment rules (RRs). CAPF officers contend that as they have been granted the categorisation of an organised Group ‘A’ cadre, their RRs should be revised and this will allow them more positions in senior ranks as compared to the officers who come on deputation to these forces.
The Indian Police Service officers however state that framing of RRs is a procedure well laid out.
“Every organised cadre has a procedure for recruitment, promotion and for availing of service benefits. The eligibility criteria are drawn after taking a holistic picture of the service and the officer’s service tenure. It cannot be held back by anyone and it is being prepared in earnest,” an IPS officer said.
These proposals will be finally placed before the screening committee headed by the Union home secretary and a final framing of RRs and procedures will be brought out by the MHA, he said.
A senior Home Ministry official said Thursday the home secretary-led screening committee will strictly go by the procedure in granting the benefits of the NFFU and NFSG to these officers of paramilitary forces.
“The decision will be taken on the merits of the proposals and the established norms for Group A services and not because some one has launched a campaign,” the home ministry official said.
The Modi government, on July 3, had announced that the cadre officers of forces like CRPF, CISF, BSF, ITBP and SSB will be given the NFFU and will be categorised as an organised group A service.
This decision had come after a decade-long legal battle waged by the cadre officers seeking a level playing field by ending the dominance of IPS officers in their senior ranks.
The new order is meant to benefit about 11,000 serving cadre officers and a few thousand more who have retired since 2006 from the five CAPFs.
The apex court had in February upheld a Delhi High Court verdict on the subject and agreed that all the CAPF officers be recognised as “organised services”, saying it will remove stagnation, ensuring the promotion and other service-related benefits to officers in the same post.
These officers command units are deployed to undertake anti-Naxal operations, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency tasks, border guarding and they also render a variety of roles for maintenance of internal security and conduct of elections across the country.
