NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Home Affairs has sought comments from central security forces on a proposal received from the CRPF to re-name the officer rank of 'second-in-command' as 'additional commandant' and end the "embarrassment" these personnel suffer in explaining their designation, officials said.
A second-in-command rank officer of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and the Assam Rifles is an analogous post to the superintendent rank in the regular police establishment.
Officers are inducted in CAPFs like CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB and CISF in the entry rank of Assistant Commandant and with the first promotion, they are designated as second-in-command (2IC in short) and subsequently as commandant which is equal to senior SP rank of the police.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), country's largest paramilitary with about 3.25 lakh personnel on its rolls, has recently written to the home ministry, stating officers of this rank find it "difficult to explain their rank and profile in civil society".
"Even in various government organisations, the rank of second-in-command is difficult to be explained. It goes without saying that a CAPF officer should take pride in his rank, but the rank of 2IC fails to add to the pride of the officers and rather becomes a matter of embarrassment," the CRPF proposal accessed by PTI said.
The paramilitary force has sought re-designating the 2IC rank as additional commandant, following which the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has written to the other four CAPFs and the Assam Rifles to furnish their comments.
A home ministry officer said the issue was not that "tricky" and the ministry may issue a notification once the comments are received from all the forces and a decision is made. A second-in-command rank officer, as the name goes, is the deputy of the commanding officer of a CAPF unit or battalion.
So, it will be appropriate if this designation is given a proper name, a senior CAPF officer said. For example, in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), a 2IC rank officer is called Commandant and the officer immediately senior to him as Senior Commandant, he said. "A uniformity should be made in all the CAPFs vis-a-vis the 2IC rank," another officer said.
He said such a proposal of re-designating the 2IC rank was discussed many years ago between the CAPFs and the MHA, but nothing came out of it, the second officer quoted above said. The over 10 lakh strength CAPFs and the Assam Rifles are deployed for rendering a variety of internal security duties apart from border guarding and protecting VIPs.