Air travel for paramilitary

IN a welcome step, the Central government has entitled personnel of the paramilitary forces deployed in the Kashmir valley for counter-terror operations to take commercial flights for joining duty or proceeding on leave. The ‘better late than never’ decision has been prompted by the February 14 attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama that claimed the lives of 40 jawans. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has approved air travel on the Delhi-Srinagar, Srinagar-Delhi, Jammu-Srinagar and Srinagar-Jammu sectors for all members of the Central Armed Police Forces. The move is expected to benefit around 7.8 lakh personnel of the ranks of constable, head constable and assistant sub-inspector. So far, only officers of the rank of inspector or above were the beneficiaries of this facility, underlining the importance accorded unjustly to the pecking order.

Immediately after the Pulwama outrage, questions had been raised about allowing a 78-vehicle convoy to travel by road, imperiling the lives of over 2,800 men. The jawans had been caught off guard by the car-borne terrorist’s suicide bombing, a modus operandi that resurfaced in the Valley after over a decade. The MHA was quick to refute reports that the government had rejected a proposal to ferry paramilitary personnel from the Jammu-Srinagar sector by chopper, while claiming that air courier services had been significantly enhanced in all sectors to reduce travel time.

Flights will make the journey relatively safer and far less tiring for the soldiers, but there is absolutely no room for laxity. The aerial routes will have to be sanitised through vigilant monitoring and prompt action on intelligence inputs. Any security lapse on the ground or in the air could prove fatal for the troops. Forty precious lives were lost in one stroke; the onus is on the government and the defence establishment to exercise extreme caution and prevent a repeat of such incidents. The sheer audacity of the Pulwama attack makes it obvious that terror outfits would stop at nothing to inflict major damage on the Indian forces. Pre-empting their deadly moves is a must.