Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the CAPF e-AWAS web portal  saying the government has been able to enhance the housing satisfaction for the troops of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) by 13 per cent.

What is the purpose of this portal?

• Increasing the Housing Satisfaction Ratio (HSR) for Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel is one of the priority areas of the government. 

• In order to increase the HSR, apart from construction of new houses, the existing house allotment policy of CAPFs has been modified whereby vacant houses of one Force can be allotted to desirous personnel of other Forces. 

• In order to operationalise the revised policy of allotment and to also bring transparency in the allotment process, a common web-portal by the name ‘CAPF eAwas’ for online allotment of Departmental Pool Residential Accommodation and Separated Family Accommodation (SFA) held by CAPFs has been developed. 

• The web-portal will enable online registration and allotment of residential quarters/SFAs to eligible personnel of all CAPF.

• The portal, which has been developed on the lines of the online allotment system of ‘General Pool Residential Accommodation’ (eSampada), will facilitate maintenance of an accurate inventory of ‘Residential Quarters/Separated Family Accommodation (SFA)’ held by CAPF, as well as their allotment through online process to eligible Force personnel. 

• As per current data, about 19 per cent houses are vacant in CAPF and through this portal a jawan of one force can seek a house available with the other force.

• The portal also has the provision for intimation to the applicant thru SMS and e-mail at various stages of the allotment process. It would also facilitate planning for construction of new quarters based on demand-gap analysis.

• It has a provision that if a house of any particular Force is not allotted for any reason for a period of four months, then any CAPF personnel can apply for the same vacant house online. 

• The houses which are available for inter-Force allotment would be visible to all CAPF personnel. This provision of inter-Force allotment will result in optimum utilisation of available houses and thereby increasing the HSR.

Central Armed Police Forces

Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) refers to the common nomenclature of seven security forces. It is under administrative control of the home ministry. 

The CAPF consist of:

1) Border Security Force (BSF)

2) Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)

3) Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)

4) Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)

5) Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)

6) Assam Rifles (AR) 

7) National Security Guard (NSG).

• Out of these, AR, BSF, ITBP and SSB are the ‘Border Guarding Forces’ while CRPF is deployed to assist the civil administration under the state governments/UT administrations in matters relating to maintenance of Public Order, internal security and counter insurgency. 

• The Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) are specialised wings of the CRPF to deal with the riots and Left Wing Extremism / insurgency. 

• CISF provides protection to vital installations of national/strategic importance. 

• The National Security Guard (NSG) is a specialised strike force trained in the counter terrorism and anti-hijacking operations. It is also entrusted with the task of securing the high risk VIPs and acts as sky marshal for securing the domestic and international flights.

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