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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 21

Brigadier JPS Randhawa (retd), who was decorated with the Vir Chakra for gallantry during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, passed away here today at the age of 90. He was also a recipient of the Sena Medal.Born in Amritsar in 1927, he was commissioned into the Army in 1952 and belonged to the Eighth Gorkha Rifles. After retirement, he chose to settle in Chandigarh.In the 1971 war, his battalion had been deployed in the Western Sector, when on December 12, his defensive position was attacked by the enemy with heavy artillery support. He mustered and led the battalion’s commando platoon in a surprise counter attack that turned the tide of the battle and routed the attacking force, according to his citation.

The Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, seems on course and has not put a foot wrong — so far. Not a single good step that he takes will go unappreciated Also, he is too seasoned a leader to make the mistake of writing the Akalis off.

Captain Amarinder Singh’s in his second innings is a more seasoned administrator and has selected a cracker of a team.

PUNJAB has just been through what I consider potentially the most significant poll since August 1985.  Never before, with the possible exceptions of 1966 (communal aftermath of the linguistic partition) and 1984 (Operation Blue Star and anti-Sikh massacre), has the state seethed so much for so long with   subterranean discontent, anger, cynicism and a crouching sulk as we saw in the lead-up to these elections. No one in particular should be blamed for that. Neither the government nor the opposition put the state above themselves.

I am relieved that the start of the second tenure of Captain Amarinder Singh is  significantly different  from the one in 2002. He has said nothing that does not behove his stature as the Chief Minister. I must give him credit for steering clear of ugly and confrontationist posturing that had come to disfigure his previous tenure.

One must not forget that Amarinder was a youthful 60  in 2002 and he is a ripe 75 – or thereabout – now. He has seen a lot of life in government and also 10 long years in opposition – both from us and from within his own party. I am focusing on Amarinder because to me the poll triumph as well as the new dispensation is more the Captain’s, rather than the achievement of the Congress.

I know he would like to give credit for this to his party and its high command and that’s sweet of him. But Punjab knows better. I must concede that this time Amarinder has hit the ground running. His choice of officers so far has been impeccable and indicates a willingness to transcend inheritance of ugly confrontation  and deliver on what he has promised. True, he will surprise me if he is able to fulfill all or even most of his major political promises. And I will be happy to be proved wrong. But there is no doubt that he has surrounded himself with all the right kind of people. Continuing with Suresh Arora as the police chief  clearly meant that the old songs of vendetta have been muffled, at least for the hour. The suave Karan A Singh, an upright and efficient  professional, as  head of the Civil Service in Punjab means (one hopes) that merit shall determine postings – a huge plus.

Karan is humble and has no swagger, no loud stentorian bass, no heavy-weight  authoritarian aura, which in bureaucracy is often a camouflage for self doubt, ignorance and incompetence.

The appointment of  Tejvir Singh as the new Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary is a soft pronouncement of loud intent: sobriety, conciliation and consensus could be the keys to conflict resolution in the days to come. To me, Tejvir is the best of the lot around the CM. How effective he will be allowed to remain is another matter. But by far the most significant decision  – exceptionally brave and unprecedented –   has been  to put  Suresh Kumar at the peak of the administrative pyramid  as Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister in the emoluments  (perhaps not the rank) of Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India. I am no great fan of this “out-of-box” arrangement  and it might create some confusion about the effectiveness and role of the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and even the Chief Secretary, but the advantages too will  be significant.

I think the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister should be the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister alone. Period. For the first time, the head of the Civil Service in the state would report to someone other than the Chief Minister – a de facto Chief Minister. How good that is, only time will tell.The best thing, and perhaps the only good thing, about this arrangement is the person chosen to man it. Suresh is not only vastly experienced but has an unimpeachable reputation for uprightness. Few in this government can beat him in  elocution and making impressive presentations.  Beyond that, I have my reservations.To me, the arrangement  smacks  of Governor’s rule, with an advisor to boot. How relevant will the people’s representatives remain? That is a test for Suresh to pass.

I know the Chief Minister’s team is handpicked by Suresh and that will ensure harmony. Yet, the arrangement itself is too untested to inspire faith. One hears that K R Lakhanpal —sharp, outspoken and a  functioning visionary — is also being inducted into the system at a key position. That will make it one cracker of a team for the new Chief Minister. I am also watching with interest who his advisor on information will be and how much will he be allowed to breathe by a zealous bureaucracy.The message from the government’s first few decisions has created a positive impact. But sweet as these  decisions sound: “Drug addicts will be treated with compassion !” – Captain Singh would be the first to agree that most of these “decisions” are anything but “decisions.”  These are mere declarations of intent. Nothing practical has so far been announced on any of his key promises, like employment to 30 lakh youth, waiver of farmers debt etc. I am very suspicious of the move to hide inaction behind  Committees. If they had wanted to, they could simply have taken a cabinet decision on waiver and filling of vacancies and then left its implementation to officers and experts. All the data they needed on farmers’ debt and on unemployment is already available with Suresh himself. They are going about it the other way round. Not impressed. But one could argue that the government is not even a week old yet and it is not fair to judge  its performance this early. And that’s a fair argument. All in all, I would say Captain seems on course and has not put a foot wrong – so far. I assure him that not a single good step he takes will go unappreciated. He is too seasoned a leader to make the mistake of writing Akalis off. One also hopes he wouldn’t be hyper in his responses to well-meaning criticism. The initial signs from the palace are not bad. But it is early days yet.The writer, a freelance journalist, has served as Adviser on National Affairs to the former Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal.  These are his personal views.

A ‘summer storm’ has gone, leaving in its wake an enduring army of the hopefuls. The political ‘storm’ was perceived to be serious as the three contenders — the Congress, AAP and SAD-BJP — came out in full battle gear in the battle of the ballot. The AAP was threatening to sweep the other two off their feet. One man stood his ground, believing in himself and the people he trusted. At the end of the day, Captain Amarinder Singh won, keeping his word he gave to The Tribune in these columns on January 29 this year. “We’ll win at least 70 seats,” he had told this newspaper. The Congress has won seven more. A triumphant Captain smilingly said of his rival: ‘Arvind Kejriwal is like a summer storm which came and has gone.” The victory marked the second innings for the Maharaja of Patiala. How did he pull it off, how did his war machine work and who are the men the new Chief Minister trusts the most? The Tribune takes you through to the inner circle — the ‘magnificent five’ of the CM, who calls them by their first name and leans on them through thick and thin. 

Suresh Kumar

A 1983-batch IAS officer. Kumar has been appointed Chief Principal Secretary to the CM. He has known the Captain for 30 years. A post-graduate in Commerce from Delhi University, Kumar was posted as SDM at Talwandi Saboo in the mid-1980s when the Captain contested Assembly elections from there and won to become a minister in the Barnala government.Known as an effective administrator, Kumar retired as additional chief secretary (development) in April, 2016. His colleagues recall him as a man who quickly cleared official files. Kumar worked as Principal Secretary for about three years during Captain’s first term (2002-2007). Suresh Kumar is an open-minded officer and takes his team along. Though known as a hard taskmaster, he does not believe in confrontation. When the Congress government in its previous tenure faced criticism because of lackadaisical functioning of the Chief Minister’s office, the Captain made him his Principal Secretary. Kumar is said to have stabilized the system and run the CMO virtually singlehandedly.

MP Singh

Associated with the CM since 2002. During his first term as CM, MP Singh remained his secretary. He is now Officer on Special Duty(OSD). A retired PCS officer, Singh also remained Additional Private Secretary to Preneet Kaur when she was minister of state for external affairs in the Manmohan Singh government. Post retirement, he has been working with the Captain and Preneet Kaur at their camp office at New Moti Bagh Palace.“Working with the royals has been a very pleasant experience. They are a wonderful people and yet ‘uncommonly common’ — very generous and always helpful. I have given them my 100 per cent and got back much more,” says Singh. He belongs to Dhanula village in Barnala district. He is a post-graduate in English Literature from Panjab University. Singh was the first one to be appointed as OSD even before the Captain assumed office on March 16. As a government officer, he worked first with Giani Zail Singh in the early 1970s and then with 14 governors from 1983 to 1993. He was elevated to the PCS cadre from the ministerial staff in 1997 by then chief secretary RS Mann. When the Akali Government took over in 2007, he was posted at Ferozepur, where as SDM, he handled charge of more than a dozen offices.“Whenever Rajmata (mother of Capt Amarinder Singh) comes to Moti Bagh Palace, she always invites me for lunch. She is a great soul,” he says. “They trust you and it is for you to be worthy of it.” 

Karanpal Sekhon

A third generation loyalist of the erstwhile Patiala royal family. Karan has been with the Captain since 1992. He studied at Bishop Cotton School, Shimla, and later at the Government College Chandigarh.  He was an OSD to the Captain during his first term as Chief Minister. “Our family has personal relations with the royal family,” says Karan, who originally belongs to Kal Banjara village in Sangrur district. Karan’s grandfather Ishar Singh was a Nazim in the Patiala state. His father was in the IIIrd Regiment of Patiala State and was absorbed in the Army post Independence.Karan served for about seven years in a corporate house in Delhi. He has been accompanying the Captain to almost all places and has also been attending family functions. He is in-charge of liaison work for the CM. 

Capt Sandeep Sandhu

He first studied at PPS Nabha and later at the Government College, Chandigarh, and has been associated with the CM as a member of his personal team. “A school friend who was posted as IPS in Delhi once took me to the Captain’s residence there. That was the beginning of my association with him,” says Capt Sandhu. He quit Merchant Navy in 2003.Capt Sandhu comes from Bhag Singh Wala village near Faridkot. He managed Amarinder’s election war room during Lok Sabha elections in 2014, when he defeated BJP’s Arun Jaitley at Amritsar with a big margin. That election marked the political return of Amarinder Singh. When he became state Congress chief replacing Partap Singh Bajwa, he made Capt Sandhu general secretary of the party and also gave him charge of the Congress office in Chandigarh. “As a member of the personal team, my job was to give all the required feedback, which I got from party leaders and others to Amarinder and arrange his visits to rural areas for campaigning,” says Sandhu.

Major Amardeep Singh

The retired Army officer served in the same Sikh Regiment of which Capt Amarinder Singh was a part in the 1960s. He is from Manepur village in Gurdaspur. He served for a while in the CMO during the previous tenure of Capt Amarinder Singh. 

New Delhi, March 17

A 46-year-old Lieutenant Colonel of the Indian Army allegedly committed suicide outside his house in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka area on Friday morning.

His family members told the police that he was stressed that he might be court-martialed soon. A case of misappropriation of funds was going on against him in Siliguri, Assam.

No suicide note has been found so far but prima facie it appears to be a case of suicide, said DCP (Southwest) Surender Kumar.

“A PCR call was received from Salaria Apartments in sector 20 today around 7 am. We were informed that Lt Col Jagdish Prakash was found hanging from the grill near the stairs leading to his house,” he said.

Prakash had been living with his wife and two children in this sector for the last seven years.

His wife told the police that he had been depressed for the past few weeks because of the issue.

She said he was having a disturbed sleep pattern and would step out of the house at 3 an and then return.

Today he stepped out at the same time but did not return. When she woke up, she tried to reach him on his cellphone but he had left his phone at home.

After sometime, she stepped out and saw her husband hanging outside the house. She raised an alarm and her neighbours informed the police.

Prakash was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead.

He was serving in Corps of Engineers and was posted at the Kashmir House on the Rajaji Marg here and belonged to Kerala.

Inquest proceedings are underway, the police said. — PTI

Manpreet Singh Badal and his wife Veenu arrive at Raj Bhawan on Thursday.

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 16

Newly appointed Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal today became the first in the new government to shun security cover and decline an official car, which he is entitled to as a Cabinet Minister and MLA.Other Congress ministers and MLAs have taken security.Manpreet reached Raj Bhawan for the swearing-in ceremony in his Toyota Fortuner without any police guard. In the SAD-BJP regime, ministers, some MLAs and halqa in-charges, who had not even won the elections, used to roam around with 10 or more gunmen.Even some Akali leaders in Delhi had up to 20 gunmen. To end the ‘VIP culture’ was one of the main issues in the Assembly elections. The Congress and AAP had promised in their manifestoes not to follow the ‘VIP culture’.Manpreet, who drafted the Congress manifesto, said he did not take police security and government vehicle during his tenure as the Finance Minister in the SAD-BJP government as well.As for AAP, its 20 MLAs will convene a meeting soon to decide whether or not take security. Dakha MLA HS Phoolka said that so far, none of the MLAs had taken security and official vehicle.“We are against the ‘VIP culture’ and show of power. Having said that, some MLAs may face difficulty as they don’t have a vehicle of their own. We will meet soon and take a call,” Phoolka told The Tribune.AAP chief whip Sukhpal Khaira said party MLAs would decide soon. “On a personal note, I feel government vehicle might be required. Moreover, an MLA can have gunmen, but it should not become a show of power,” he said.Some AAP MLAs said SHOs of their areas had attached a constable with them. They said the party used minimum police security in New Delhi, but the situation in Punjab was different. “Here, you have to travel a lot. In light of recent attacks and sacrilege incidents, security cover may become a necessity,” a legislator said.On government vehicles, AAP MLAs alleged the Transport Department offered them Maruti Gypsy, which was in poor condition. The government has Toyota Camry and Innova, besides Gypsy for MLAs. Congress MLAs have opted for the luxurious vehicles, leaving Gypsy for AAP and Akali MLAs.AAP MLAs have retuned Maruti Gypsy as their official vehicle. They may accept Innova.

Channi: No red beacon chandigarh: Keeping his word, newly appointed Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi ordered his staff to remove the red beacon atop his official car after the swearing-in ceremony at the Punjab Raj Bhawan here on Thursday. Channi said, “I have asked my driver not to keep any red beacon, because I will be travelling to the Secretariat as a common resident of the state. I have always told my voters that I am one among them.” Speaking to his supporters, Channi said, “I come from a middle-class family. I have seen the misuse of power associated with symbols such as red beacon and security guards. I will carry my office as simple and as open as I promised my voters during my campaigning.” Channi had avoided carrying a red beacon even when he was the CLP leader during the tenure of the SAD-BJP government in spite of being entitled to it. Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Army personnel near the encounter site in Tral. Tribune File photo

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Hayuna (Tral), March 10

The voice notes were sent and shared over phone messengers. The anonymous speakers called for mobilisation of demonstrators to rescue the militants.As the gunfight ensued for the next 16 hours before ending on Sunday afternoon, the site of the encounter was surrounded by angry crowds which came in waves to throw stones at the security personnel manning the outer rings of the cordon. The village of Haffo, where the gunfight took place this week, was surrounded by layers of security personnel and then by another layer of belligerent protesters.It is for the first time in south Kashmir’s Tral sub-district, where the village is located, that such a clash has taken place amid a gunfight. The police called it a “minor” incident. Locals, however, said it was previously unseen here.The new trend where civilians clash with security forces, engaged in battling militants, has swept the districts of south Kashmir and drawn warnings from the top echelons of security forces. It is almost a reversal of what used to happen during the first two decades of militancy in the region when civilians would flee to safety.At Haffo, the protesters made desperate attempts to rescue Aqib Ahmad Bhat, a young man from neighbouring Hayuna village, and Usama, a foreigner — the militant duo which was fighting off repeated assaults on a house which they had barricaded.On an early spring morning on Monday, a day after the gunfight ended at Haffo, Bhat’s body lay motionless on a makeshift stage under the shade of a leafless walnut trees. His face was partly bandaged to hide a bullet wound in his left eye. Next to the dead militant, a bearded speaker raised slogans in support of ‘gun solution’ and eulogising the militant cause. Finally, the speaker read out the names of dead militants to which women responded, “They are alive.” Their colourful scarves, which veiled the faces of many, sparkled in the barren ground at Hayuna, where Bhat’s body was kept for funeral.Some women wore a traditional black veil, including a mother, who moved between rows to find a spot from where she could make her two daughters, aged nine and twelve, have a look at Bhat’s face. For her, it was an act of reverence.The funerals of militants are drawing unprecedented participation in recent years, and, as the crowds of protesters swarm the battle zones, it is also reshaping the region’s political narratives.The last militant funeral in Tral was the largest in recent decade. It was of Burhan Wani, whose killing in a gunfight in July last year had sparked a wave of protests and a long phase of unrest.To reach Hayuna for Bhat’s funeral, men and women walked long distances. A middle-aged woman from Tral’s Amirabad village had walked 5 km. “I am married in Amirabad but I am from this village,” she said. “I have rarely seen him as he had gone to memorise the Koran for three years and then he went in Allah’s ‘path’,” she said.Inside the ground where Bhat’s body was placed before a crowd of mourners, the women raised slogans as men jostled to touch the militant’s body and held mobile phones to shoot pictures and videos. On the road outside the ground, some men gathered in groups, discussing facts, rumours and legends.Bashir Ahmad Mir, a local, recalled the protest that erupted around the site of the gunfight at Haffo village, located almost a kilometre from Hayuna. “Some people had even come from Kulgam to throw stones,” Mir said, referring to a district which is almost 60 km from Tral.Mir, in his fifties, was surprised at the way the new generation had clashed with security forces. “Earlier, everyone would run away, this time, everyone was rushing towards this place,” he said.One of the protesters who clashed with security forces outside Haffo had come from Shopian, nearly 40 km from Tral. “My two brothers have died, they were militants. So, I had to come,” he said as if it was an obligation for this father of two young girls. “Our blood is the same,” he said.

Civilians clashwith forces

• The new trend where civilians clash with security forces, engaged in battling militants, has swept the districts of south Kashmir and drawn warnings from the top echelons of security forces
• The funerals of militants are drawing unprecedented participationin recent years, and,as the crowds ofprotesters swarm the battle zone, it is also reshaping the region’s political narratives

26/11 carried out by group based in Pak is a classic trans-border terrorist event. Mahmud Ali Durrani, Ex-NSA

Simran Sodhi & Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 6

Pakistan’s former National Security Adviser (NSA) Mahmud Ali Durrani today said the 26/11 Mumbai attacks were carried out by a terror group based in Pakistan.Speaking at an event here, Durrani, however, denied the Pakistan government or the Inter-Services Intelligence played any role, calling it a “classic” example of cross-border terrorism. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)His admission of Pakistan’s involvement comes as no surprise as he had said the same thing in 2009 too. He was sacked from the NSA’s post for confirming to the media that Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured after the Mumbai attacks, was indeed a Pakistani national. Asked for his response to Durrani’s statement, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said, “India’s position is well known and consistent… There is nothing new for us.”Speaking at the same event, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan’s NSA, condemned Pakistan’s policy of “using one terrorist against another”. He said there was no good or bad terrorist. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar called for coordinated global action against terrorism. “Even though there is a broad consensus on what constitutes an act of terror, a formal agreement is missing,” he said.Since the Mumbai attacks in 2008, India and Pakistan have gone back and forth on the probe into the case. While Delhi has been demanding action against Lashkar chief Hafeez Saeed, Pakistan’s contention is that the proof provided against him was “inadequate”.Durrani’s statement, therefore, will be an added thread to the ongoing India-Pakistan narrative. After more than a year of chill in ties, India and Pakistan will meet for the Permanent Indus Commission talks in Lahore on March 20-21.

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 21

Pakistan has opened a window for India to launch across-the-border operations to crush terrorism as it itself has gone in for anti-terror operations in Afghanistan.The border, when it comes to launching anti-terror operations, holds no sanctity. Pakistan has proved that in the last few days following the carnage at a Sufi shrine in Sindh.America was the first to do it after 9/11 when it bombarded Afghanistan and landed its forces there to stamp out the Al-Qaida and the Taliban.Now Pakistan has done it. By that standard of anti-terror operations, Pakistan cannot deny India its right to strike at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for terrorists have been using Pakistani soil to attack India. Besides, Pakistani terrorists have been hyper active against India in Afghanistan as well.Pakistan did not hesitate even for a moment to conclude that the terrorists who killed worshippers at the Lal Shabaz Qalandhar shrine in Sindh were from Afghanistan. It went on to ask for 76 terrorists from the Afghanistan government. The Afghan envoy was not summoned to the foreign office but to the General Headquarters of the Pakistan army.The Pakistan army claimed to have killed over 100 terrorists in Afghanistan. It has also warned Kabul that it would repeat the operations as and when Islamabad would suspect that Afghanistan-based terrorists were targeting Pakistani people or establishment.The message was heard loud and clear in Pakistani Senate when on Monday, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told the House: “The Prime Minister had authorised the army to take out terrorists wherever they might be.”There, however, was a dichotomy in his statement when he said: “It had been established beyond doubt that foreign soil had been used to orchestrate the two latest attacks — in Lahore and in Hayatabad.” He recalled Pakistan’s commitment that its soil would not be allowed to be used for terrorism in any country and noted that the time had come to ensure that no other country’s soil was used against Pakistan.Pakistan’s soil has excessively been used by terrorists to target Afghanistan and India. It is an undeniable fact that Pakistan’s soil has given birth to several terrorists, who have been trained to strike the western countries too.Terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad and some sections of the Taliban having links with the Islamic State have been operating under the direct patronage of the Pakistan army.So, for a Pakistani minister to say that “Pakistan’s soil would not be allowed to be used for terrorism in any country” runs into the face of the realities that have traced terror camps in Pakistan, wherefrom terrorists are prepared for “jihad” in J&Kand other parts of India and Afghanistan.India for its own security has the right to strike at terrorist camps wherever they exist, here or across. The sovereignty definition cannot be a one-sided definition. Pakistan itself has shown the door officially. Now, it is time for India to learn the right lessons, this time from the neighbouring country, also troubled by terrorism.It is a universally acknowledged fact that Pakistan is an epicentre of terrorism. The best course for Islamabad, as military experts would suggest, would be to first decimate its home-grown terrorists. The terms “good terrorists” and “bad terrorists” hold no ground. By now this fact should have dawned on Pakistan.

Aspirants await their turn for a medical test during a recruitment drive in Ludhiana on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Himanshu Mahajan

Shivani Bhakoo & Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 21

On the second day of the recruitment rally for 14 vacancies in Territorial Army here today, syringes and other objectionable material, including empty bottles of cough syrup, was found from the bags of several candidates.Army officials said the material was obtained not only from the candidates of Punjab, but also from Haryana and Delhi. Col NK Sharma, under whose guidance the recruitment process is being held, said the candidates’ bags were checked on both days randomly.“We found used and unused syringes and empty bottles from their bags. This shows that to enhance the performance the candidates must have consumed drugs. We did not let them go for any physical or other test and they were immediately sent back,” said Col Sharma.On being asked the number of such candidates, Col Sharma said the bags were randomly checked by Army personnel at different points and they did not maintain any record.“We are also conducting dope test of candidates, who have scored well in physical tests. Each testing kit costs around Rs 250 and is used on one person only. It is not viable to conduct dope test on each and every candidate. But those selected and have scored well are being minutely watched,” said Col Sharma.Most of the participating candidates are from rural background from states of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The rally will conclude on February 28.At least 6,000 candidates are expected to take part for 14 vacancies of Territorial Army.

Tribune file photo for representation.

New Delhi, February 21Dhobi, safai karamchari, mali and mochi at CRPF will soon get English titles, while cook will become chef and barber will be called hairstylist as part of a ‘nomenclature facelift’ suggested by the government.Fitter will become automotive mechanic, mali will be gardener or horticulturist and safai karamchari — house keeper, while those working in kitchen including masalchi, kahar and water carrier will be known as assistant chefs.Other proposed changes for titles of trademen at the paramilitary force include dhobi to laundryman, chowkidar to security assistant and mochi to shoe maker.These changes were suggested to the Central Reserve Police Force by Union Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy under the skill development programme.“Hoping to enhance the respect of the work force in CRPF the minister wants to do away with tags such as chowkidar, mali, mochi, safai karamchari,” a senior official told PTI.“Though there is no substantive change in the rank and nature of job, yet their trade title is proposed to be changed. Further there is no financial implication in this case,” the official said.The changes have also been shared with other paramilitary forces like CISF, ITBP, BSF, SSB and Assam Rifles.Sharing his thoughts with CRPF jawans while distributing certificates of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) earlier, Rudy had noticed that the nomenclature associated with the skill sets and work force are archaic and needed a facelift, the official said.The minister had expressed the need to recognise and prepare a new and more aspirational vocationally skilled work force with a view to ensuring their employability, and making them more respectable and indicative of the trade. — PTI