Lack of communication behind fratricide cases being addressed: DG

New Delhi, Apr 28 (UNI) Lack of communication among the cadres has been taken as the primary reason for most of fratricide cases in the Central Reserve Police Force, for which several drastic steps on a war-footing have been initiated.

CRPF Director General V K Joshi, addressing mediapersons today said lack of communication among the jawans and officials seemed to be the main cause behind such killings and suicides.

''While during training, the jawans and officials are trained to interact and communicate better with each other, but somewhere down the line, the link has broken.'' ''This link has to be rejoined and the process would be initiated at all levels - right from the jawan to the DG level as this year alone, four such cases have taken place as compared to ten last year,'' he said.

''We are also introducing yoga practice to destress jawans and others who are deployed in difficult situations. Besides, Art of Living sessions are also being brought in to maintain the poise among the cadres under trying circumstances.'' The exercise to increase interaction among officers and jawans has already begun. This in turn would create better understanding and rapport among them and reduce the friction quotient, Mr Joshi explained.

''This is being done on a war footing.'' Change in behavioural pattern and changing deployment pattern from Jammu and Kashmir to Jharkhand/Chhattisgarh and North-East had contributed to the problem and often it was the lack of communication which led to misunderstanding, he elaborated while adding that ''this was the core issue which was being addressed.'' Renewing call for its own intelligence wing for effective counter insurgency (CI) operations, the CRPF DG said, ''our intelligence gathering is at a nascent stage where we are deployed and we act only on information provided by the state intelligence units.

''With our own one we could be proactive and accurate as intelligence inputs by state agencies are macro in nature and not of micro-level.'' Stressing that CI operations were primarily based on effective intelligence inputs, he said, ''having one's own would definitely give us an edge.'' UNI AN PK DS1700