Jawans on social media: BSF snoop agents to check morale of

In the wake of its jawans taking to social media to air their grievances, the BSF has directed its special snoop teams to check on the morale of the jawans and the force even as it said instances of complaints being voiced via the social media were being dealt with "strictly".
The country's largest border guarding force said it has "strengthened" its intelligence and internal vigilance set up in the wake of these incidents.
The force has announced a slew of steps it has initiated to check corruption charges and the grievances amongst its 2.5 lakh personnel workforce.
"Representatives of intelligence network have been directed to report instantly about the morale of the force as well as cases of indiscipline as and when they occur.

"Similarly, the internal vigilance set up has been invigorated by placing the set up separately under one Inspector General level officer and placing vigilance officers upto battalion levels to counter corruption in the force," it said.
It said that disciplinary action was being expedited for all ranks "as and when required and if charges levelled are proven to be true."

"Voicing grievances in the social media is also being dealt with strictly," the paramilitary added.
The directives, the force said, were issued as "there have been some recent instances of venting out grievances on the social media."
"Immediate note of these instances has been taken, inquiries have been ordered to probe into systemic aberrations wherever reported," it said.

The Border Security Force (BSF) headquarters here said it has sent "teams of senior commanding officers to visit all units at cutting-edge level and do the audit of prevalent systems... With a view to bring out paucities to bridge the gaps, if any."
Some other counter-measures to check grievances and problems have also been taken by the BSF.
"Formal and informal interaction levels with jawans have been enhanced. Efforts are being made to counter wrong propaganda on social media through formal and informal social media platforms," it said, adding "systematic innovations to ensure cashless transactions in all messes are being introduced."

The force said that it has a very "robust grievance redressal system" within its establishment from the lowest field unit upto the Director General (DG) level.
"Supplementing these processes, supervisory officers, whenever they visit posts or locations hold Sainik Sammelans to address the personnel under their command where the individual can report.
"There are established systems of suggestion boxes, if the person wishes to submit anonymously. Also, supervisory officers at every level have circulated their phone numbers to speak on any issue which bothers an individual, personal or official," it said.