Home Ministry Issues Order Allowing Commercial Air Travel For CRPF And Other Paramilitary Soldiers Deployed In Kashmir 

In a move that will make journeying in and out of the insurgency-hit Kashmir Valley much safer for security forces, the Home Ministry has issued an order authorising commercial air travel for CRPF and other paramilitary soldiers deployed in Kashmir while they go on leave as well as when they return to join duty, reports News18.

The ministry says that it “has approved the entitlement of air travel on Delhi-Srinagar, Srinagar-Delhi, Jammu-Srinagar and Srinagar-Jammu sectors to all the personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs).”

According to the ministry, the move will benefit around 7.8 lakh paramilitary soldiers serving at the ranks of constable, head constable and assistant sub-inspector who were previously not eligible for such air travel.

The new facility is in addition to the air courier services which CAPF soldiers had available to them in which whole aircraft are booked for exclusively for the soldiers’ travel.

This decision of the Home Ministry means that a jawan deployed in Kashmir will be able to claim reimbursement on the amount that he pays for his air travels to and from Kashmir while joining duty or returning home.