What is the current strength of the CRPF? Any more raisings on the anvil?

We don’t share any numbers. You can excuse me for that.

A few years back, because of rapid raisings, newly-raised personnel were being trained in Group centres. What is the situation now?

Efforts are being made to ensure recruitments happen on a regular basis. What happens is that the recruitment itself is not done on a yearly basis, because it is done through the commission and because of certain unavoidable reasons the recruitment is done almost once in two years. So, the number of vacancies almost doubles, which sometimes leads to the numbers being higher than our capacity to be able to train them through the Recruit Training Centres (RTCs). So, we are trying to change this system of recruitment from this year. The SSC which does the recruitment have changed the system from this year. And we are hopeful that they would now be able to complete it within a period of one year so that this problem itself will get resolved.

What is the CRPF’s current deployment across Jammu and Kashmir and left-wing theatres? How much will these numbers change after the Amarnath Yatra?

We have a certain regular deployment in Jammu and Kashmir, and the yatra is another event which takes place yearly. The security forces are supplemented at that point of time. And after the yatra concludes then we fall back to our regular levels of deployment.

In what ways did security arrangements this year for the Amarnath Yatra differ from previous years?

Every year we learn from our experiences and we have very close collaborations with the Jammu and Kashmir police and the other security agencies, and the army for the yatra arrangements. A lot of new initiatives have been taken like tagging the vehicles with RFID devices, also bar coding slips for the pilgrims and many other such steps. Looking at the different threat situations and inputs, the arrangements are tweaked and changes are made to the arrangements. And this year, by now more than 2,72,000 people have already been to the shrine. At this point of time, the yatra is in full swing.

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Do you think the restrictions on the movement of civilian and tourist movement on the highway was necessary for the smooth conduct of the yatra?

Looking at the movement of the yatris as well as the convoys, because of the new threat from vehicle-borne IEDs that we have seen, it is important that the roads at least at that point of time be momentarily regulated. The traffic needs to be regulated. The decision to restrict the traffic was in the best interests of security. Also, it’s not that the road is not available to others, the road has been blocked only at certain times.

Specific to the Jammu and Kashmir t