NEW DELHI: With India having no state-owned carrier of its own after selling off Air India, the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) are finding it difficult to get seats on sanctioned price bands in flights. They are grappling with the absence of designated flights for their personnel through air courier services, particularly those deployed in Jammu & Kashmir and north eastern states.
In the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack in January 2019, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had made a big convoy rule change and had issued an order approving the entitlement of air travel to low-ranking personnel on the Delhi-Srinagar, Srinagar-Delhi, Jammu-Srinagar and Srinagar-Jammu routes. Around 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans were killed in the attack.
Officials said that air courier services face challenges due to coordination and financial issues across various locations, affecting personnel of all the CAPFs deployed in the three internal security theatres – J&K, Naxal-affected areas and north eastern states - prompting discussions at the highest levels in the government.
During a recent meeting chaired by CRPF Director General (DG) Anish Dayal, the issue of finding seats in flights being difficult was raised, where discussions also took place to find a solution, a senior official privy to the deliberations said.
They said that during the deliberations, participating officers highlighted that they are not getting seats in flights on account of limited capacity, particularly on the Srinagar-Jammu-Delhi route.
The officials also mentioned that on the Delhi-Kolkata-Aizawl route, they get Air Charter Service (ACS) only on Saturdays, posing constraints for personnel, adding that on the Dibrugarh to Guwahati and then Delhi route, air courier services have been stopped, causing severe inconvenience in commuting from challenging locations.
With regard to other routes, officials said jawans are also facing problems on the Kolkata-Imphal-Kolkata route due to increased force deployment in Manipur. The demand was made to expand the frequency of air services from three to five days to accommodate increased numbers of personnel deployed there.
After the initial decision in 2019 to provide air courier services to personnel posted in Jammu & Kashmir, the MHA extended the facility in all sectors to help them cut down on travel time.
The eight approved routes include Kolkata-Aizawl-Silchar-Kolkata, Kolkata-Agartala-Kolkata, Kolkata-Imphal-Kolkata, Delhi-Srinagar-Delhi, Srinagar-Jammu-Srinagar, Delhi-Leh-Delhi, Delhi-Dibrugarh-Guwahati-Delhi, and Delhi-Raipur-Jagdalpur-Raipur-Delhi.