577 CAPF personnel died due to heart attack, illness in Naxal affected areas: Govt

New Delhi, Aug 6 (PTI) A total of 577 CAPF personnel have died due to heart attack and illness in Naxal-affected states over the last five years, with the maximum being from the Central Reserve Police Force, the government told Parliament on Tuesday.

The data was provided by Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai as part of a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Through year-wise data for five years between 2019-23, the minister stated that 297 CRPF personnel died due to heart attack and illness followed by 108 from the Border Security Force (BSF).

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) lost 76 personnel due to these medical conditions, 74 from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and 22 from the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), the data revealed.

"No specific unusual causes of heart attack and illness in Naxal-affected areas have been observed," the minister said.

In another reply, he said the CRPF has taken a number of steps for the prevention of suicides and for better mental health of its personnel.

Rai said "qualitative improvement" in the living conditions of troops has been made with the help of government funds.

"A 24x7 toll-free number 18005990019 of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) has been circulated at force level so that the force personnel could approach the psychologist for counselling," he said, citing some other welfare measures too.

The CRPF is the country's largest Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) with a sanctioned strength of 3,30,851 personnel followed by the BSF with 2,65,808, CISF with 1,86,924, ITBP having 98,858 personnel and SSB with 97,774 staffers.

In a third reply, Rai informed the House that there were vacancies in all CAPFs against their sanctioned strength, including in the Assam Rifles, another force under the Union Home Ministry.

The sanctioned strength for Assam Rifles is 65,536 personnel but its present strength is 62,575.

The current strength of the CRPF is 2,98,033, BSF 2,55,663, CISF 1,51,925, ITBP 90,000 and SSB 91,922 as compared to their respective sanctioned manpower, the data revealed.

Thus, the total sanctioned manpower for these five CAPFs and the Assam Rifles is 10,45,751 personnel but their cumulative current strength is 9,50,118, the data provided by the minister showed.

Rai said filling up vacancies in these forces was a continuous process.

"The ministry has been taking and will continue to take earnest steps to fill up the vacancies through UPSC, SSC and the forces concerned.

"It may be mentioned that 67,345 persons between April 2023 and February 2024 have been recruited. Further, 64,091 vacancies have been notified and are at different stages of recruitment," he said. PTI NES NSD NSD