Soon, a 'chutti' committee for CISF soldiers

In a novel method devised to ease the much-troubled issue of timely leaves for soldiers, the Central Industrial Security Force has proposed creation of a 'chutti' (leave) committee comprising the constabulary to decide amongst themselves the priority of an individual in this regard.

CISF Director General O P Singh, during a 'sainik sammelan' with his jawans deployed for Delhi Metro security at a camp in New Delhi, said such an arrangement will work in easing the problem of leaves to the men and women of the force who at times have to render heavy duties due to changing security situations.

"While we ensure that you have timely leaves... I can understand that there are some constraints in this area when there is an extra alert or enhancement in the task. We can have a 'chutti committee' comprising a group of jawans who can themselves decide whose going on leave is the most important and the person with utmost priority gets it first," he told a group of about 1,000 personnel who attended the meeting.

CISF DIG (Metro) Raghubir Lal said such committees exist for the maintenance of jawans' mess and canteens.

Singh gave an example saying in case a person has a wedding of his immediate relative like brother or sister should have a priority over his colleague who wants to take a leave for attending the marriage of a distant relative.

"I will be the most happy person as a commander when you go on your well deserved leave and come back to work happy and satisfied. We will create this committee in all our units and troops can decide the priority after taking a decision with honesty and clairvoyance of thought," he said.

Once the committee decides on the name, he said, they can brief the commander so that he can sanction the leave.

"This wil ease the commander's job and there will be no complaints for partiality," the DG said.

Later, he said leave becomes an issue when the duties are increased and his personnel have to remain on extra alert in the wake of heightened security.

"We are very liberal with leaves... there are strict directives to commanders to quickly sanction leaves. But such a measure will go a long way in making the situation even better," he said.

Sanctioning of leaves, at present, is decided by the immediate unit commander of the trooper and jawans present in the 'sammelan' on Friday said, at times, they have to produce a wedding card or some documentary proof to validate their urgency and requirement.

The CISF DG also asked his men to remain courteous but firm while dealing with commuters at either the Delhi Metro or airports where the paramilitary force is tasked for security duties.

He also told them to be strong and said the menace of suicides is a wrong way and approach towards life.

The DG later told his personnel that CISF will soon have retiring rooms and guest houses for the families of jawans and lower-rank officials.

Representative Image: Reuters