Retired personnel of paramilitary forces from across the country protested at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Sunday, March 3, against the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. They alleged that they are mistreated, irrespective of them putting in as much as the army in interest of the nation.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been celebrating Diwali with paramilitary forces but what has he done for us?” an India Today report quotes a personnel as saying. The primary demands of the protestors are one rank one pension (OROP) to ensure same pension for personnel in the same rank for same time of service, irrespective of date of retirement; demand for special allowances if posted in conflict areas; better access to government healthcare services and like the Indian Army, access to subsidised canteen services.
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The report adds that if their demand is not met, the protestors will send the government a strong message in the upcoming elections.
They protestors castigated the PM for not doing anything for the paramilitary forces. Mohammed Sher, a 65-year-old retired personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), who served as a constable at Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch for 26 years is quoted in an NDTV report, by Sukirti Dwivedi, as saying that a slain army soldier’s family gets salary till the time he would have worked, while the CRPF troopers are neglected in this regard. “If an Army man dies, his family gets his salary till the time he would have ideally served and his full pension also after that. But the family of a CRPF soldier who loses his life doesn’t get that. We should also get martyr status.” he added.
Protesting with flags and banners, another personnel spoke about the trauma of being away from family, being deployed in every corner of the country and yet being treated unfairly. “We leave our families, our parents and work in all corners of the country. The previous as well as the current government treat is in an unfair manner,” said George CV, who served as a Head Constable in the CRPF for 24 years, adds the NDTV report. “We may be called ‘ardhsainiks’ but those are our shoulders that the ‘sainiks’ use. We lift the armed forces up and enable them to perform their duty,” he added.
Per the NDTV report, even young aspirants who desire to get recruited in the CRPF were seen at the protest, alleging corruption in recruitment procedure, leading to unfulfilled vacancies. They reportedly said, “In 2011, 72,000 vacancies were announced by the Staff Selection Commission but only 44,000 seats were filled,” 28-year-old Ram Ratan Meena claimed, adding, “We have met the Home Minister also but we have only been given false assurances.”
The protest came just weeks after forty CRPF troopers were martyred in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama on February 14.
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