BSF jawans to blog, email 'ideas' and suggestions to headquarters

NEW DELHI: Taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's advise to his ministers on use of social media, the country's largest border guarding force BSF, has asked its personnel to write emails or blogs about the problems and grievances faced by them.

The first of its kind initiative for a 2.5-lakh strong force is aimed to connect the bordermen posted in far-flung areas with the higher echelons of the paramilitary force and its headquarters in the national capital.

BSF chief D K Pathak, who initiated the plan by banking on the strong intranet facility of the force spread to the last border outpost, said suggestions and ideas have started trickling in the inboxes of the headquarters' servers here.

"We call this initiative e-suggestion. Our personnel who serve in difficult areas have many things to share. They understand the areas of their operation and its challenges better than anyone else.

"So we decided to tap this potential of our men and women to find better solutions for accomplishing the challenges of our task," Pathak, who took over the reins of the force two months back, told PTI.

The Director General said once they have a bank of some good suggestions and the experiment is found to be successful, the jawans and officers of the force will be encouraged to write 'blogs' for the benefit of all.

According to this new initiative, a jawan or an officer posted in border areas can write down his or her suggestions and ideas and hand it over to the nearest centre which is connected with the intranet service.

The new system is essentially aimed to generate an idea pool so that the small issues and difficulties faced by BSF personnel could be solved by deploying some home-grown ideas and solutions rather than using the usual circuitous channel of service procedures.