Paramilitary troopers are left "overstressed" due to long-haul duties at troubled zones, ITBP chief Ranjit Sinha said today.
ITBP Director General (DG) Ranjit Sinha's statement comes days after his CRPF counterpart K Vijay Kumar had remarked that his men are suffering from a "lot of stress" due to hectic work schedule.
"It is true that we are overstressed because of the work schedule...continuous deployments. But in my force, the levels of stress are less," Sinha said while interacting with reporters at the ITBP headquarters here.
He was responding to media queries on whether central police forces, including Indo-Tibetan Border Police, are stressed and tired as stated in a recent Home Ministry sponsored study, conducted by IIM-Ahmedabad.
Sinha said the stress level in ITBP, which guards India's frontier with China and is also tasked for anti-naxal operations in Chhattisgarh, is not "alarming" and the force takes a number of steps to keep a check on stress-related issues.
The ITBP DG said the nature of duties that these forces render are of a very special requirement and hence, the troops and officials are expected to perform long haul duties. "We cannot issue leave to everyone at one go...it affects our operational capabilities but special leave requirements and issues are always given priority," the DG said.
In the backdrop of Home Ministry records stating that a number of troops and officers are opting for voluntary retirement and leaving the service, Sinha said this does not affect the forces as with the exit of serving personnel, young blood fill in the ranks.
CRPF DG K Vijay Kumar, some days back, had said that his force was suffering from a "lot of stress" because of long periods of deployment. There are six paramilitary/central police forces under the command of Home Ministry which include ITBP, CRPF, BSF, CISF, SSB and NSG. They render a variety of internal security duties including select security assignments for Indian assets abroad.
Sinha said a lot of youngsters are interested to work in the forces as seen in recruitments where the ratio of applicants to the post is almost 2000:1. He also said the forces are making all efforts to address family-related and other emotional issues of jawans and officers who are posted in far-flung areas from their homes.
The DG said the security situation along the Sino-India frontier is "not alarming" and the force always keeps the Home Ministry updated about the happenings on the 3,488-km frontier that it guards.
"There is no problem of national security on this frontier," Sinha said when he was asked about reports of Chinese incursions. He also said all these forces have made extensive plans to ensure recruitment of young men and women hailing from Naxal-affected areas of the country.