The fourth phase of the lockdown, dubbed lockdown 4.0, which is likely to see the opening up of services, movement of inter-state traffic, transportation of goods by air, rail and land even as the spread of the virus continues, is expected to add to the challenges of the Central paramilitary forces (CPMFs) battling COVID-19.
The Central armed police forces like the CRPF, ITBP, CISF, BSF have the largest public interface with pan-India presence, which has made them the most susceptible to the virus in the last two months, with more than 700 cases reported so far.
The ITBP, which was the first responder when the batch of Indians returned from Wuhan by facilitating their quarantine, has recorded 12 positive cases in the last 24 hours with a total of 171 cases till date. The CRPF, which is the largest Central paramilitary force in the country, has 254 cases of COVID-19 affected personnel. Of these, 248 are active cases, five have recovered and one personnel lost his life.
The CISF, which is deployed at all airports in the country, has already swung into post lockdown preparedness. It is in the process of formulating standard operating procedures for deployment when the operations resume at airports and Delhi Metro post lockdown.
The CISF has a total of 109 COVID-9 cases—31 in Delhi, two in Greater Noida, 32 in Mumbai, 39 in Kolkata and five in Ahmedabad. Twenty-eight cases have been reported at Mumbai Airport, three at Delhi Airport, and 28 cases resulting from duties at Delhi Metro.
Battling the pandemic is the latest challenge for the jawans who are assisting state police forces, guarding vital installations like airports, land ports and sea ports across the country, performing border guarding duties and ensuring that there is no security threat to the country.
The CPMFs have taken proactive steps in implementing the measures taken by the government, from enforcing the lockdown, sealing borders, checking travellers to assisting migrants.
As the cases of jawans testing positive are on the rise, the challenge is to provide best healthcare facilities to the affected and their families, as well keeping the morale of the forces high, said an officer. Sources said the cases of suicides and fratricides in security forces has been an area of concern, and the virus pandemic can add to the worry of the boots on the ground dealing with the crisis on a day to day basis.
In order to ensure appropriate social distancing, the number of personnel accommodated in barracks has been reduced to half the prescribed number, and fumigation and disinfection drives have been carried out in the unit lines and family accommodations. Besides, quarantine facilities for 14 days, sanitization of security screening equipment and equipping force personnel with PPEs are being done on a war footing to prevent the spread of the virus.
The personnel of the Border Security Force, which guards the international border with countries like Pakistan, have got protective gears like face masks, gloves, and face shields. Strict sanitisation and screening is going on in barracks. Besides, contact-less cooking and serving, yoga practice and other immunity enhancing practices have been introduced.
More than 250 companies of BSF are also on duty in Delhi, Gujarat, Assam and Meghalaya. Two BSF personnel lost their lives to the virus even as nearly 290 active cases were reported till May 13.
