CRPF retirement age: Here is what Central Reserve Police Force personnel want from Centre

CRPF retirement age: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) reportedly want more static duties for its personnel if the retirement age of its combat troops increased from present 57 to 60 years. The paramilitary force has also reportedly asked the government to allow it to raise at least 16 new battalions to meet the operational requirements and compensate for the additional 16,000 older personnel in case of increase in age.

According to a PTI report, CRPF has informed Union Home ministry that if the Delhi High Court directive is implemented then it will have 16,844 additional older personnel between 2020 and 2022. Even as the other Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs)  include the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), and the Assam Rifles have agreed to raise the age of retirement; CRPF has been the lone dissenter, the report said. 

 The directive to increase the retirement age of personnel up to the rank of Commandant came from the Delhi High Court. The retirement age of the personnel above the Commandant is 60 years in CAPFs.

CRPF has submitted a proposal to the MHA that it should be given more peacetime duties like guarding vital infrastructure or strategic assets of the country where the older personnel may be deployed. Following the Pulwama attack on February 14, 2019,  the paramilitary force is chalking out new operational strategies, as it has whopping 22,120 under the low medical category.

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A huge number of personnel from this force have been deployed for the anti-Naxal operations in the Left Wing extremism-affected states and anti-terrorism offensives, therefore, casualty and injury rates of its troopers also high.