NEW DELHI: History in Border Security Force (BSF) is in making but this time nothing linked to operations. For the first time ever, two units of the force have been denuded of their entire officer cadre and around 2400 men are under the charge of just four officers from the neighbouring Units.
The officers of the 52 Battalion and 32 Battalion located in Punjab have been quarantined for organizing a social gathering in their own officer's messes.
The development was confirmed by multiple sources.
"In the 52 Battalion, 12 officers, 11 family members and 19 staff personnel have been quarantined by the Inspector General of the formation as officers held party under the lockdown," revealed the source.
A Second in Command of the neighbouring Unit is put under the Charge of Unit and another officer is managing the Staff duties, confirmed the sources.
In 32 Battalion nine officers which include the Commanding Officer and the two Second in Commands have been quarantined for arranging a reception for a new officer, told the sources.
One BSF Unit is configured on around 1200 Gazetted Officers, Subordinate Officers and Other Ranks.
This quarantine of the officials of the two units in BSF took place more than a week after a social gathering was held in the BSF Force Headquarters in Delhi.
"A tea gathering was held in the BSF Lounge in the Headquarter building on 30 April during the lunchtime with more than 25 officers including the DG, three ADGs, Inspector Generals, Deputy Inspector Generals and the directorate officers got together to see off the IG Training Mr KC Mahali and to felicitate Chief Law Officer DIG VS Yadav," said the source.
Mr Mahali has completed his tenure with BSF and has gone back to his parent cadre Tamil Nadu and DIG Yadav has superannuated from service.
This newspaper sought a formal reply from the force regarding any 'dine-out' party, to which the PRO BSF, quoting the DG Force said, "There was no dining out, this is misinformation."
There was no reaction on the issue of following two sets of rule for the officers in the FHQ and those in the field Units.
The government has issued advisory to abstain from social gathering of more than 10 persons.
At present, there are more than 750 COVID-19 Positive cases in the CAPFs with a maximum of 297 being in the BSF and four particularly from the Headquarters at Delhi.
BSF is a Border Guarding Force with an approximate strength of 250,000 personnel guarding borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh and is also involved in other internal security duties.