NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways has denied giving a special allocation of reservation quota to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) on the lines of defence forces and said instead it can give priority in giving seats to them.
The Indian Railways has communicated this to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on its request to give reservation quota to the personnel of the CAPFs in trains.
The CAPFs include the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Assam Rifles, Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Security Guard (NSG) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
According to officials recently Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla had intimated the Railway Board Chairman saying: “The matter was taken up with the Ministry of Railways to consider the allocation of reservation quota to CAPFs personnel on the similar pattern as allocated to Army personnel, so that personnel of the CAPFs could also undertake hassle-free journey to their hometown/destination and vice-versa.”
In his response, the Railway Board Chairman intimated that instructions have been given to the ministry officials to accommodate CAPF jawans on priority basis.
Quoting the reply of the Railway Board Chairman, a senior official said, “The Indian Railways deeply appreciates the contribution of CAPFs in ensuring the safety and security of Indian citizens. CAPF personnel do face emergent and stringent conditions where they have to move at short notice in national interest for security purposes.”
“To facilitate the journey of CAPFs personnel by trains, instructions already exist to give due priority to CAPFs personnel while releasing accommodation out of emergency quota on the requests received from them on this account. However, they have reviewed this matter and again instructed all concerned in the field to accommodate the travel requests of CAPFs personnel to the best possible level,” he said.
However, the officials said that the CAPFs wanted quota on the lines of the Indian Army, as they get limited leaves and non-availability of tickets wastes their leave period. Due to operational reasons, especially in security risk areas, leaves get sanctioned at the last moment post which booking tickets becomes an impossible task.