COVID-19: Working strength at CAPF headquarters in Delhi increases

The headquarters of paramilitary forces like the CRPF and the BSF witnessed enhanced manpower on Monday as the Union government scaled up its working strength to combat the situation arising out of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The organisations, also known as the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), issued almost identical directions asking their commandant-rank (equivalent to senior superintendent of police) officers and those senior to them to attend office.

"Officers who head verticals and are entitled to government-issued vehicles and drivers and are in the ranks of commandants and above reported from Monday.

"The overall working strength is being maintained between 30-40 per cent," a senior Border Security Force (BSF) officer said.

An officer of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police said that apart from senior officials, staffers who are picked up and dropped off by force buses from camps in Tigri, R K Puram and other locations in the Delhi-NCR have joined work.

"All the officers, from director general (DG) to commandants, are ensuring all COVID-19 protocols of physical distance and proper sanitisation while attending office," the ITBP officer said.

The head offices of other forces like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) also witnessed an increased strength of officials coming to work from Monday.

Last week, these forces had extended the leaves of personnel on home vacation, training and sent on other administrative works till April 15, while some like the BSF had extended the leaves till April 21, in order to contain the spread of the viral infection.

Movement of personnel is strictly barred till these dates and commuting is only allowed in emergency cases, a CRPF officer said.

The working strength of these forces at their field offices across the country also increased from Monday, a senior official said.

These forces, with a combined strength of about 10 lakh personnel, are deployed to render a variety of duties in the internal security domain of the country like border guarding, anti-Naxal and counter-terrorist operations and VIP security among others.