Days after the Pulwama terror attack, the Ministry of Home Affairs has approved the entitlement of air travel on the Delhi-Srinagar, Srinagar-Delhi, Jammu-Srinagar and Srinagar-Jammu routes for all the personnel of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces.

The decision will immediately benefit approximately 7,80,000 personnel of the CAPFs in the ranks of constable, head constable and ASI who were otherwise not eligible earlier, a ministry press release stated.

This decision means that jawans of CRPF and other paramilitary forces can now take commercial flights to join duty or while going on leave. On February 14, more than 40 CRPF jawans were killed when an explosive-laden vehicle rammed into the CRPF convoy.

“This facility is in addition to the existing air courier services for CAPFs that have been steadily extended in all sectors by the MHA to help the jawans cut down on travel time during their journey to and fro from home on leave,” the release stated.