Ensure personnel not doing farming, fishery: NDRF brass

In his order, Chauhan said all jawans should be involved only in government duties and not be engaged for any “personal work”.

“All the seniors should ensure that these jawans should not get involved in the personal work of farming, dairy farming, fish farming and vegetables farming… Appropriate strict action would be taken if they found that jawans would indulge in similar activities in the premises of NDRF units and they found such allegations true,” the order stated.

The NDRF was raised in 2006 as a federal contingency and disaster response force. It has a strength of more than 18,000 men and women rescuers as part of 16 battalions and 28 regional response centres across the country.

“All the seniors should not physically and mentally harass any jawan and always give importance to their problems with some solution. They should also behave properly with all the jawans,” the order said, adding that the health, nutrition and fitness of jawans should be taken care of.

The directives on mental health of NDRF personnel come months after a task force looking into suicides and fratricides in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) flagged the way senior officers should behave with juniors and recommended mental health screenings.

The order by Chauhan also said: “All the incharge of branches should ensure that they do not accept any Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding from any private organisation. Since NDRF is a government institution, it is not allowed to accept such donations.”

Chauhan said no assistance should be taken from any private firm for the construction of stadiums or badminton courts on NDRF campuses.