Paramilitary personnel to be granted 'battle casualty' status

Jawans and officers of central paramilitary forces like BSF, CRPF and ITBP will soon be accorded the status of "battle casualty" on the lines of armed forces that will allow their families to avail special concessionary benefits for education and livelihood.
Officials said the Union Home Ministry has "in principle agreed" to grant sanction after the country's largest border guarding force BSF made a proposal in this regard sometime back, which was taken up during a review meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh today.
They said the battle casualty status will allow the family members of the personnel killed in the line of duty to avail special benefits like obtaining educational benefits/loans for children of the slain soldier, getting jobs in state government and private sector and while applying for license for running public service utilities like a fuel pump or a gas agency.

"The final modalities are being worked out and an order will be soon issued by the Home Ministry. This will be applicable for the jawans and officers of forces like BSF, CRPF, ITBP, CISF, SSB and NDRF," a senior official said.
The facilities that can be provided under the battle casualty status by the Centre and various state governments are being worked out, they said.
Also, they said, the Ministry will consider enhancing the risk and hardship allowance given to the about eight lakh men and women of these forces tasked to render a variety of internal security tasks within the country and at the international borders.

During the meeting, the BSF also put forth its request to the Ministry to make its air wing a "self regulatory establishment" on the lines of the Coast Guard, the maritime security force under the Ministry of Defence.

"The proposal essentially flags that the BSF air wing used for transport of Central Armed Police Forces and VVIPs should be given more assets and authority to operate in a more organised fashion. It is desired that the BSF air wing gets more independence in undertaking operational sorties. Comments have been sought in this regard from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Defence and also Coast Guard," they said.

The BSF, during the meeting, also informed the Home Minister that the special tech-based border security and fencing gadgets project will soon be implemented on a pilot basis along both the western (Pakistan) and eastern (Bangladesh) frontiers.
BSF Director General K K Sharma also mentioned the issue of upgradation of their border outposts and troop locations along the Indo-Pak and Indo-Bangladesh frontiers during the meeting, they said.