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Within 10 days of the dastardly Pulwama terror attack on 14 February 2019, which killed 40 CRPF jawans, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved air transit facilities for the CRPF between Jammu and Srinagar, and Srinagar and Jammu.
Recently, another attack was attempted on the CRPF convoy, which comprised of 400 jawans, in Banihal in Jammu & Kashmir. Fortunately, the attack failed.
But the question here is, why are so many jawans still being transported by road, when the government had already approved air transit facilities?
The Quint spoke to a few CRPF jawans to see why so few were using air transit despite the danger of going by road.
What we learned is that the problem is financial.
To use the air transit facility, CRPF personnel are told to shell out money out of their own pockets to buy the air ticket, which is later reimbursed by the CRPF. This process of reimbursement can take up to two months, said a senior CRPF official.
Around 45,000 CRPF personnel are deployed in the Valley. On average, a minimum of 2-3 CRPF road convoy movements takes place every week. It is the responsibility of the CRPF and other Central Armed Police Forces and Armed Forces to transport their personnel safely to the nearest Railway station when they are going on leave, and Jammu is the nearest Railway station to Srinagar.
The CRPF spokesperson has said that the CRPF is in talks with Air India and IRCTC to streamline air transit movement of jawans between Jammu and Srinagar. But he didn’t confirm how long that process will take. According to former CRPF officer VPS Panwar, even the Air India flights aren’t a real solution.
The Quint had earlier reported that CRPF officials had requested the MHA to provide air transit facility for the Pulwama terror attack convoy, and that that request had been ignored.
It was also reported that the BSF in January 2019 had requested airlifting facility for the stranded BSF personnel in Jammu & Kashmir – but that request too was turned down by the MHA.
A senior BSF official said that during the winters, it becomes problematic to transport large numbers of stranded personnel, which is why they sometimes seek the MHA’s assistance in airlifting them.
The BSF official added that when there is no air transit facility available, BSF personnel are transported by road.
Apart from the Central Armed Police Forces, the Armed Forces are also deployed in massive numbers in the Valley.
In the Army:
It is very strange and unfortunate that the government thinks about the welfare of our security forces only after a major loss of life. Basic facilities like air transit should have been provided to the security forces years ago.
And now that they have got it, it’s expensive, and comes with no guarantee that it will be provided to every jawan.
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