Poor quality food for soldiers!
BSF on cover-up exercise, Home Minister orders inquiry
Jammu Tawi/New Delhi: The social media is buzzed with the messages of support for the Jawan of BSF who has exposed the alleged deep-rooted corruption in the food provisions purchased and served for BSF jawan defending country's Border. The film and sports celebrities and commoners have expressed anguish over the plight of the jawans who have been deprived of proper and wholesome meals.
A day after a video of a BSF jawan alleging corruption in the provision of food at the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir went viral and the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh took cognisance of the issues flagged by him, the Government on Tuesday directed BSF chief to submit the enquiry report by Wednesday.
After being prodded by the Prime Minister's Office, both Singh and Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi called up the BSF DG KK Sharma and directed him to complete the enquiry and submit the report by tomorrow.
Singh had late on Monday night tweeted, “I have seen a video regarding a BSF jawan's plight. I have asked HS to immediately seek a report from the BSF and take appropriate action.”
Sharma told a television channel that the jawan might have some problem and action will be taken if the allegations are substantiated during the enquiry.
Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju tweeted, “Taken serious note of a BSF jawan video. But during my regular visit to border posts, I find high levels of satisfaction amongst the jawan. The welfare of our security forces guarding the borders and other difficult are of absolute priority. Any anomaly will be dealt with firmly.”
In preliminary enquiries, the Norhtlines has traced two leads to Jammu and Udhampur that indicates a nexus between established suppliers/contractors and some senior officers of BSF responsible for purchasing provisions/store in the past.
Facing severe embarrassment, the BSF top brass has denied the charge and has started digging deep into the past of the Constable Tej Bahadur and attached various attributes to him. Jammu Frontier of the BSF on Tuesday issued a statement denying allegations of irregularities in supply of ration to the paramilitary jawans deployed on the International Boundary (IB) or the Line of Control (LoC). Instead of independent enquiry, BSF has ordered an inter enquiry by a DIG rank officer. Meanwhile, BSF has shifted Tej Bahadur to another headquarter. No officer incharge for the mess or responsible for purchases have been shifted to ensure an impartial inquiry into the whole gamut of the issue.
The trooper in a video revealed about the alleged poor quality of food and sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention, saying the plight of troopers posted along the cold, hilly border was pathetic.
Speaking in Hindi, Yadav alleged that troopers were served bad quality food and at times were forced to go hungry.
Claiming to be from the 29th battalion of BSF, he accused unnamed officers of illegally selling off the food supplies meant for the troopers.
He also posted other videos showing a poorly baked ‘chapati' and dal which he said had “nothing except salt and turmeric”.
“Leaving apart the background of individual, to enquire into the circumstances which the individual alleges in the posted videos, a DIG rank officer has reached the location. The investigation will reveal the facts soon,” the statement added.
IG BSF DK Upadhyaya told a select media reporter at Jammu thrown many counter allegations against the Jawan, “It is reality. He has many complaints against him including intoxication, insubordination, aiming a gun at a senior officer. He was court-martialed in 2010. But keeping in view his family and his children, he was not dismissed from the service but was given a rigorous imprisonment of 89 days,” the IG said.
