JOIN USRising heart attack cases among CRPF men concerns panel
Citing high rate of heart attack cases among CRPF personnel, a Parliamentary panel has said that it indicates that the medical facilities provided to personnel were not adequate or up to the mark.
Demanding that adequate medical facilities be given to personnel, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs said the CRPF personnel are posted in areas where there is a continuous threat to life and that may lead to stress among the personnel.
"However, high numbers of cases of heart attacks indicate that the medical facilities provided to the personnel are neither adequate nor up to the mark," the panel headed by former Home Minister P Chidambaram said.
In 2017, 113 personnel died of heart attack in 2017 while it was 89 in 2016 and 105 in 2015. There were 45 deaths due to cancer in 2017 while five died due to cerebral malaria and one due to snake bite. Fifty-two personnel were killed in action in 2017.
Asked about the spike in cases of heart attacks, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told the panel, "continuous deployment in stressful situations and hard areas with irregular eating/sleep cycles and prolonged separation from families leading to domestic stress, are some of the causative factors responsible for heart attacks."
In its recommendation, the committee said that the personnel going through the stress of extremely prolonged separation from their families should be "granted leave liberally to the extent they are eligible in a year".
It said annual medical check-ups should be conducted regularly for all personnel, especially of those who are deployed in hard area postings. "Preventive measures like yoga/regular counselling etc. may be pro-actively implemented to keep their health issues in check. Preventive health care must be introduced as part of the health check-up of personnel," it said.
On Thursday, DH reported that CRPF personnel have to work overtime every day without any compensation and around 80% are forced to sacrifice their weekly-offs every time citing the panel report. The panel was "dismayed" at this workload and reminded the MHA and CRPF that working 12-14 hours with no scope for holidays and Sundays would bring in "psychological and physical" consequences on the personnel and would affect their work.