Paramilitary officers told to taste food for jawans: govt

Senior officers of paramilitary forces have been advised to partake in the food prepared for jawans and endorse a note on its quality, the government today informed the Rajya Sabha.

The move comes in the backdrop of a video uploaded by BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav on social media over the poor quality of food served in frontier posts of the BSF.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said the ministry has reiterated to forces to ensure that the officers during their visit to posts, may check on the aspects of living conditions, clothing, food and equipment and they may also take initiative to get free and frank feedback of the personnel.

"It has been advised that senior officers may also partake the food prepared for the jawans and endorse a note on the quality/quantity of the food in the inspection register. The forces have also been advised to review their internal grievances redressal system and take proactive measures to redress the grievances," he said.

On the issue of videotape of Yadav, Rijiju said, "Senior officers of the force were deputed to ascertain the facts. A Staff Court of Inquiry (SCOI) has been ordered and to facilitate free and fair inquiry, the officers concerned have since been transferred".

In response to a separate question, he said, "BSF has informed that the jawan, who made the complaint of substandard quality of food, has not been transferred from out of the frontier where he is serving. It is also reported that the said jawan never made such complaint earlier to anyone".

In yet another response, the minister said the CRPF has also reported two such complaints of poor quality of food along with various other grievances. "With respect to other paramilitary forces viz - SSB, ITBP and CISF, no such complaints have been received adding that all the forces have robust grievance redressal mechanisms," he said.