New Delhi, October 4, 2026: Ex-paramilitary veterans have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and reinstate about 400 Border Security Force tradesmen whose services were terminated after skill certificates submitted during recruitment were found to be not genuine. The dismissed personnel, recruited mainly as cooks, water carriers and waiters, maintain that they were victims of cyber fraud and did not deliberately submit forged documents.
The appeal has been taken up by the Alliance of All Ex-Paramilitary Forces Welfare Association. The association submitted a representation to the Prime Minister and held a press conference at the Press Club of India on September 30, 2026, seeking a review of the dismissals before Diwali. It has also warned that, if no decision is taken, members will begin a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar from October 9.
Recruitment and dismissal
The affected personnel were recruited in the 2023–24 BSF tradesmen exercise. Several received appointment letters at events linked to the Prime Minister’s Rozgar Mela and joined in 2024. Candidates for trades such as cook were required to produce a National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) Level-1 certificate in food production or kitchen operations, issued through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) or an institute recognised by it.
They cleared the written examination, physical tests and document verification, and served for roughly one to two years before their appointments were terminated on the ground that the certificates were fraudulent. A termination letter issued to one of the personnel, accessed by ETV Bharat, cited submission of a fraudulent cooking certificate.
Tinku Yadav, who joined as a cook on March 13, 2024, told ETV Bharat that he served until March 21, 2025, when his appointment was ended. “I obtained the certificate online, but the authorities are now saying that it is forged,” he said. Deepak, a Delhi resident posted with the 155th Battalion at Ferozepur, said he had learnt of an institute through YouTube that advertised the certificates as valid. He said he was later told the certificate was not genuine, and that his elder sister’s wedding had been put on hold because of the loss of income.
Veterans’ case
Association general secretary Ranbir Singh said the recruits obtained and submitted certificates online and became victims of fraud, rather than intentionally submitting forged documents. “The fault does not lie with the young recruits, but with those who issued the certificates,” he said. The association has argued that responsibility should rest with those who issued the documents, and that the personnel are seeking justice and reinstatement, not confrontation.
Association president H.R. Singh, a retired Additional Director General of the CRPF, described the scale of the action as unusual. He noted that the personnel had cleared the prescribed stages, served for nearly two years, and in some cases received recognition for their work. Ranbir Singh said some had been rewarded by senior officers for the quality of food they prepared. H.R. Singh urged the government and the BSF to examine the matter from a humanitarian standpoint, adding that age limits may now bar many of those dismissed from other government employment.
The association has also cited an RTI reply from the NSDC, reference NSDCO/R/E/26/00096, which it says stated that “no certificate has been generated on the SIDH portal” for the courses in question for the period 2015 to 2023. On that basis, the association contends that the candidates were misled by online operators posing as legitimate training providers.
Ranbir Singh said several of the dismissed jawans had taken personal or bank loans of about Rs 5–7 lakh on the expectation of stable government service, and asked how those loans would be repaid if the appointments were not restored. Retired BSF officer Gajendra Singh Chaudhary has also supported a reconsideration of the grounds cited for dismissal.
Protest plan
The association has appealed for reinstatement ahead of Diwali, saying a decision would relieve about 400 families. It has announced that, failing action, a hunger strike will begin at Jantar Mantar on October 9. An earlier report noted that police had restricted any such protest to one continuous day and had prohibited an indefinite fast or self-immolation.
No public response from the Ministry of Home Affairs or BSF headquarters to the representation has been reported. The force’s position, as reflected in the termination orders, is that the certificates submitted at recruitment were not genuine.
The case turns on whether candidates who cleared selection and served for up to two years should be restored if the certificates were obtained from fraudulent online sources, or whether submission of an invalid NSQF document remains sufficient ground for termination regardless of intent. The veterans’ body has asked the Prime Minister and the BSF Director General to consider a middle course and reinstate the personnel in the public interest.
