Jawans can now directly call up top brass at MHA, paramilitary to voice their grievances

Following two incidents in which a Border Security Force (BSF) soldier Constable Pramodh Kumar committed suicide and another BSF Jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav cried foul, the top officials of both MHA and all Paramilitary forces have jointly decided to provide the Jawans with their personal contact numbers to lodge grievances.

"During the two-day meeting of Parliamentary Standing Committee of Home Affairs Parliamentarians of TMC, Congress and Left have asked for reports from the ministry officials. Initially, they were refused but later officials of paramilitary forces enlightened the Rajya Sabha Chairman about their new initiative," said sources. 64 top MHA officials including Home Secretary Rajiv Meherishi and DIG BSF, DIG CRPF, DIG ITBP and other officials were present in the meetings.

On Sunday, Kumar who was posted along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district committed suicide by shooting himself with his service rifle.

Following this, another BSF soldier Tej Bahadur Yadav belonging to the 29 battalion Seema Suraksha Bal released a video to oust the corruption present in the system. The video, released early this year, revealed the deeply ingrained corruption by saying that, "The troops were deprived of the basic necessity, food."

Brushing aside the allegations put forward by Yadav, the BSF told the Delhi High Court that there were no such complaints. But, on Monday during the parliamentary meeting, the MHA officials admitted that they do not have any food and rashan policies for Jawans.

Also, TMC MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Derek O'Brien, Congress MPs Adhir Ranjan Chowdhuri, P. Chidambaram and Left MP Sitaram Yechury have raised 21 questions regarding the border security management. The government is yet to answer few of them.

Opposing the initiative, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhuri said, "It is complete eye-wash. The Jawans are afraid of the system and so they will never lodge complaints willingly."