Over the next few months, BSF will open over 2.5 lakh bank accounts for its personnel. The reason: an alarming number of cases of jawans going home on leave being looted of the salary they carry in cash.

The organisation still follows an archaic system of delivering salaries in cash to personnel at border outposts, up to Subedar level. And most of them carry the cash back home when they go on leave. Some even carry their colleagues’ salaries, also in cash, to be delivered to their families. This year has seen three murders and 39 cases of BSF personnel being looted, BSF records show. The most recent case is that of constable Ranjeet Singh of the 14th unit of the BSF, posted in Jammu and Kashmir. When he got leave for 20 days, he boarded the Lohit Express to go to his village in Assam. However, he never reached home. On May 20, BSF authorities were informed by the New Bongaigaon police in Assam that Ranjeet’s body had been found on the train. He had died of poisoning.

Twenty days ago, the body of Constable Ramesh, who was travelling from Guwahati to Bangalore, was found at the Howrah Railway station.

In most of the cases, the personnel were carrying as much as Rs 30,000 in cash.

‘‘ We are negotiating with the some banks, but opening of over 2.5 lakh bank accounts can’t happen overnight. It will take at least two months before we can implement that,’’ said M L Kumawat, additional director general of the BSF.

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