CRPF Jawans Not Given Ration Allowance in September; Agency Denies Running Out of Money
New Delhi: The Central Reserve Police Force has reportedly told jawans that it will not be able to provide them with rations along with salaries this month.
According to the Indian Express, the shortfall in the CRPF's budget is because the Ministry of Home Affairs has delayed the release of Rs 800 crore. The paramilitary service reportedly reminded the MHA numerous times about the pending dues, but they haven't been cleared yet.
On September 13, the CRPF headquarters informed jawans that they will not be receiving rations. “As no reserve fund under COR is presently available with this Dte, therefore it is not feasible to draw ration money allowance from the pay of September 2019,” the letter said.
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“This is the first time the ration allowance has been stopped,” an unidentified senior CRPF officer in Delhi told The Telegraph, which was the first newspaper to report the news. “We spoke to ministry officials last week about the pending money and they mentioned the faltering economy.”
On Sunday, the MHA and CRPF issued a statement on the matter, saying that a revision in the allowance and payment of arrears in August had created the delays and the subsequent shortfall. “On account of the revision of Ration Money Allowance made by MHA on 12.7.2019, Rs 22,144 per head Ration money (arrears) was paid to around 2 lakh CRPF personnel who are drawing RMA in August. In this way CRPF troops have already received an amount Rs 22,144 as Ration money in July which is equivalent to 6 months RMA…thus they have sufficient funds for messing,” Indian Express quoted the statement as saying.
NDTV quoted CRPF officials as saying that it was wrong to say that the service has run out of money. "Process for payment of ration money (about Rs. 3,600) for this month is in progress and it will he paid shortly and hence the contention that jawans have run out of ration money is incorrect, baseless and preposterous and there is no crisis whatsoever," the CRPF said said.
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