No movement before April 21, stay wherever you are: BSF to jawans amid coronavirus crisis

NEW DELHI: The Border Security Force (BSF) has asked its personnel to remain ''wherever they are'', saying that there would be no movement before April 21 amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis in the country. The BSF has issued an alert in which it said that there would be no movement before April 21 as part of the precautionary measures put in place due to coronavirus pandemic.

Instructions have been issued to all formations of BSF that leave of those who are already on leave be extended till April 21 and also for those who are due to join in the month of April 2020.

Similar instructions have also been issued for the training centers where training programs were already running and due to terminate in the coming days. 

Through telephone calls, the force has informed its men to follow instructions issued by their superiors from time to time to avoid any communication gap.

It may be recalled that the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) had earlier suspended all non-essential movement of its troops and staffers as they have extended their leaves by another 10 days, till April 15, in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The earlier orders were issued in the mid-March asking jawans and officers of CAPFs to "be where they are" till April 5.

"Fresh orders have been issued and all non-essential and routine movements, transfers and postings have been put on hold. No such travel will take place in these forces till April 15 now," a senior official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

"In order to cut down travel risk to prevent the possibility of spread of the disease during travel, the competent authority has directed that all personnel who are already on leave and likely to join duty before April 5 may be asked to extend leave till April 15,’’ the order said.’

The order said the decision has also been taken "in view of the prevailing situation arising out of COVID-19 and the lockdown imposed by the government in the country.’’

The CAPFs have a combined strength of about 10 lakh personnel. These forces comprise the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

Counter-terror force National Security Guard (NSG) has also been included in the order.

The Union Home Ministry had last month directed these forces that all non-emergency leaves of personnel living in units or on-duty should be canceled in order to minimise the risk of contracting coronavirus during travel and they should get into battle mode to combat the pandemic by ensuring personal and public safety.

There have been over a dozen positive cases of infection in these forces till now and all are in the second or third stage of sample collection and testing.