CISF seeks end of ex-Army personnel hiring

PTI, Mar 20, 2022, 3:35 PM IST

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New Delhi: Experimental hiring of about 1,700 retired Army personnel in the CISF for rendering unarmed duties has not found favor with the paramilitary force and it has sought discontinuation of these contracts from the Union home ministry, official sources said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had last year asked the CISF to toy with the idea of hiring 2,000 ex-army personnel for ”non-core” duties at 13 of its security units in the country, including those engaged in thermal power and coal production.

The contractual hiring was made for a period of one year initially which may be renewed on a year-to-year basis for 2 additional years.

The trial was meant to ”help and rehabilitate” retired army personnel and take benefit of their experience for security purposes.

The force — primarily tasked to provide a counter-terrorist cover to civil airports, nuclear and aerospace facilities, and other vital installations in the private and government domain — issued an advertisement in March 2021 seeking engagement of 2,000 retired Army personnel in the Army equivalent ranks of sub-inspector (SI), assistant sub-inspector, head constable and constable below the age of 50 years.

The remuneration ranged between Rs 40,000 (SI) to Rs 25,000 (constable) per month.

Official sources said about 1,700 such superannuated army personnel finally joined the force and were subsequently posted at the designated units.

”The experiment has not been found successful. The force has recently written to the MHA seeking to discontinue the engagement,” a senior officer said.

Another officer said a few reasons have been cited by the force while seeking discontinuance of this less than a year engagement.

The hired personnel are not covered under the CISF Act of 1968 or Rules and are governed by only the terms and conditions of the contract, he said.

Security is a ”serious business” and in case of accountability is to be fixed for any lapse, such personnel cannot be subjected to force rules leaving scope for unruly and risky behavior that could impinge on the overall protection protocol of the unit under the CISF counter-terrorist cover, he said.

CISF is an armed force of the Union and discipline is the most essential component for a uniformed regiment, hence there can be issues of insubordination within the unit leading to confrontation among troops.

Hence, the experimental hiring will not work in the current conditions, the officer said.

The first officer quoted above said the selected units were asked to have a 75:25 personnel ratio, with army retired personnel forming the smaller percentage, during duty hours.

”When the force has to withdraw manpower from such a unit for conduct of polls or any other law and order duty in aid of a state government, this ratio gets disturbed and it becomes an administrative issue to ensure optimum strength at the concerned unit,” he said.

The sources added that the contracts will be discontinued once a final directive is received from the MHA.

The about 1.64 lakh personnel strong force was raised in 1969 and has special wings for airport protection, VIP security, security consultancy, and fire protection.