Veterans Urge Modi to Reinstate 400 BSF Tradesmen Fired Over Fake Skill Certificates
New Delhi, October 4, 2026: A group of ex-paramilitary veterans has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and restore the services of around 400 Border Security Force tradesmen whose appointments were terminated after the skill certificates they produced during recruitment were found to be not genuine. The dismissed personnel, most of whom were recruited as cooks, water carriers and waiters, say they were victims of online fraud and did not knowingly submit forged documents.
The appeal has been led by the Alliance of All Ex-Paramilitary Forces Welfare Association, which has submitted a representation to the Prime Minister and held a press conference at the Press Club of India on September 30, 2026. The association wants the matter reviewed before Diwali and has warned that, if no decision is taken, its members will begin a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar from October 9.
Recruitment, service and dismissal
The personnel concerned were recruited in the BSF’s 2023–24 tradesmen exercise. Several of them received appointment letters at events linked to the Prime Minister’s Rozgar Mela and joined service in 2024. For jobs such as cook, candidates were required to submit a National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) Level-1 certificate in food production or kitchen operations, issued by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) or by an institute recognised by it.
According to the source material, the recruits cleared the written test, physical examination and document verification. They then 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, and accessed by ETV Bharat, cited submission of a fraudulent cooking certificate.
Several of the affected personnel have described how they came to be in this position. Tinku Yadav, who joined as a cook on March 13, 2024, told ETV Bharat that his service ended on March 21, 2025. “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 found an institute through YouTube that advertised the certificates as valid. He said he was later informed that the certificate was not genuine, and added that his elder sister’s wedding had been delayed because the family had lost income after his dismissal.
Veterans say recruits were duped online
Ranbir Singh, general secretary of the association, said the recruits had obtained and submitted the certificates online and were themselves victims of fraud rather than people who intentionally filed 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 be fixed on 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, said the scale of the action against the BSF tradesmen was unusual. He pointed out that they had cleared the required stages, worked for nearly two years, and in some cases received recognition for their work. Ranbir Singh said some had even been rewarded by senior officers for the quality of food they prepared. H.R. Singh urged the government and the BSF to consider the case from a humanitarian angle, noting that many of the dismissed personnel may now have crossed the age limit for other government jobs.
The association has also referred to an RTI reply from the NSDC, reference NSDCO/R/E/26/00096. It says the reply 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 who posed as legitimate training providers.
Ranbir Singh also said several of the dismissed jawans had taken personal or bank loans of about Rs 5–7 lakh in the expectation of a stable government job, and asked how those loans would be repaid if their appointments were not restored. Retired BSF officer Gajendra Singh Chaudhary has also supported a reconsideration of the grounds cited for dismissal.
Pressure builds ahead of Diwali
The association has appealed for reinstatement before Diwali, saying such a move would ease the distress of about 400 families. If no action is taken, it has said members will launch a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar on October 9. An earlier report had 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 so far. The force’s position, as reflected in the termination orders, is that the certificates submitted at the time of recruitment were not genuine.
The dispute now centres on whether candidates who passed the recruitment process and served for up to two years should be restored if the certificates they relied on came from fraudulent online sources, or whether the use of an invalid NSQF document is enough to justify 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.
