BSF jawans must have 6hour uninterrupted sleep:BSF Director General Raman Srivastava

The secret to an alert jawan is sufficient and uninterrupted sleep when off duty. But it took two recent studies by BSF headquarters here to realise that unbroken sleep for 2-3 hours was but a luxury for its personnel guarding the country’s borders day and night.

Setting out to reverse the years of injustice meted out to the humble jawan, BSF Director General Raman Srivastava has now issued orders to all his Frontier IGs to ensure that every jawan gets not only 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a 24-hour cycle, but is also given a weekly off to attend to his personal needs and requirements while remaining available in the border outpost for emergencies.

With depression cases rising among the Central forces, mainly on account of duty fatigue and apathy of their seniors to their requests for leave, Mr Srivastava took cue from the two studies commissioned by the BSF on the rest and relief patterns of jawans deployed at the borders. The studies threw up some shocking facts. The first being that, on an average, a jawan is engaged in operational duties for 13-15 hours everyday, besides 2-3 hours of other general maintenance duties. It was also found that jawans in almost all the frontiers get to sleep only 2-3 hours at a stretch and go without a single day off in the entire month.

The fact that the poor jawan is at the mercy of his commandant to clear his annual leave, who uses the non-transparency in leave sanction policy to keep his subordinate waiting, did not help matters either. Mr Srivastava, while warning his frontier IGs that the sleep-deprived jawan would either collapse under the workload in a few weeks or would find time to sleep on operational duties, sought an immediate review of the deployment patterns and border domination plan with a view to ensuring that “every jawan gets at least 6-7 hours of uninterrupted sleep every 24 hours and also gets at least one day off every week.”


from:Economics Times

Govt approves induction of 30,000 more personnel for BSF

In its efforts to augment the strength of the Border Security Force (BSF), the Centre has approved raising of 29 battalions, comprising around 30,000 personnel, for the country's frontier guarding force.

Of the 29 battalions, 16 would be deployed in riverine areas along Indo-Bangladesh border while 13 would serve as additional reserve battalions to be deployed on a rotational basis to ensure sufficient training, rest and recuperation for the personnel.

Minister of state for home Ajay Maken said the new battalions would go a long way in increasing the efficiency and service conditions of BSF personnel.

Attending the Passing-Out-Parade of a fresh batch of 129 BSF officers at Takenpur in Madhya Pradesh on Saturay, Maken said the exercise had began late last year. Two battalions have already been raised and seven are to be raised during 2010-2011.

With a view to enhance infrastructure to support the additional battalions, three frontier head quarters and seven sector head quarters will be created for control and command purposes, he said.