CRPF
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
The ration money allowance of officers ranked from Ground Commander i.e. Assistant Commandant to Commandant of the country’s largest central paramilitary force ‘CRPF’ has been cut. Following the orders of the Union Home Ministry, the ration money allowance of officers posted in CRPF other than duty battalions has been stopped. Due to this, CRPF officers will suffer an average financial loss of Rs 4000 per month. Due to the cessation of this allowance, there is a feeling of disappointment among the officers from Ground Commander to Commandant. According to sources, cadre officers of the force are calling this an order to break morale. Ground Commander, Deputy Commandant, TOIC and Commandant are disappointed with this order of the government.
Police 2 Division of the Union Home Ministry has issued the above order recently. After this, CRPF Directorate General has also stopped the ration money allowance of the concerned officers on Friday. The names of many officers including Assistant Commandant and Deputy Commandant are included in the list of Force Headquarters. Now they will not get ration money allowance after November 1. Let us tell you that four years ago there was talk of giving detachment allowance to the officers and personnel posted at rank 9 in ‘CRPF’. Along with this, an order was also issued that if those workers are entitled to ration money, then that will also be given to them. No employee or officer can be deprived of any financial benefit on the grounds that he is already getting another benefit. All eligible personnel will be paid their detachment allowance and ration money.
At that time both these benefits were provided to constables, constables, ASI, SI, Inspector, Assistant Commandant, Deputy Commandant, Second in Command and Commandant. These orders were issued by the then IG Administration MS Bhatia at CRPF Headquarters in September 2020. Ration money allowance started being received from the next year. According to the orders issued then, apart from giving these benefits to the existing employees, their past dues will also be paid without any delay. Not only this, in the orders issued then, ration money allowance was paid from 1998.
Vikram Singh, second in command of CRPF’s 75th battalion, had filed a petition in the Delhi High Court in this regard. The court found the evidence given by him to be correct and ordered that all eligible personnel will get detachment allowance and ration money together. In the system that was running in the force till 2020, both these allowances were not being given. Even if an officer or employee is qualified, he used to get only one allowance. There was a slight difference between these two allowances. That means detachment allowance is slightly more than ration money. In such a situation, it was seen that many qualified workers used to give up ration money allowance. Later it came to light that there is no such rule. The special thing is that at that time even the Union Home Ministry had not issued any such order.
Then CRPF sources said that all this was the result of the arbitrary will of top officials in the force. If someone took full detachment allowance, he did not get ration money allowance. Petitioner Vikram Singh had raised the same issue before the court that these two allowances have no relation with each other. Both these allowances are given according to duty. If a soldier or officer is going out of his battalion, he gets detachment allowance. Ration money, this is the worker’s morsel, which he is sure to get in any case. Accepting Vikram Singh’s argument as correct, the court had ordered that now all eligible employees will get both these allowances. He was also given the benefit of arrears.
Orders have been issued to stop ration money allowance at many places in CRPF. The said orders have also reached Group Center Srinagar, RTC Srinagar and Srinagar Sector Office.
In CRPF, now ration money allowance will be available only in duty battalions. Officers will not get ration money if they are posted somewhere else from the duty battalion. In the present system, ration money allowance was being given if posted in any institution of the force and anywhere. Now the officers posted at Group Centre, Sector, Directorate, Training Center and other static institutions have been deprived of the facility of ration money allowance. According to sources, legal hurdles are said to be the reason behind this order.