Over 400 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), India's premier paramilitary force, have been found to be addicted to drugs and alcohol, Indo- Asian News Service reported Sunday.

The news agency quoted an internal survey of the police force as saying that 426 CRPF soldiers were found to have alcohol and drug addicts.

The CRPF started the survey in February this year among its 250, 000 members by questionnaires.

The problem of alcoholism and drug abuse could be due to work pressures and the tensions of staying away from families, an anonymous CRPF official said.

The survey had not yet been completed and many personnel were yet to return the forms, he said, adding that many soldiers may be reluctant to report their addicts.

Another program to identify HIV/AIDS patients among the CRPF was done as well.

According to recent data, around 400 CRPF personnel have died of HIV/AIDS while 300 were under treatment in the past 13 years.

The first case of HIV/AIDS death in CRPF was recorded in 1992 and most cases of AIDS/HIV were detected in northeast India, the official said.

The CRPF, as a paramilitary security agency functioning under the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, bears a major task to maintain law and order and contain insurgency. It has played a very significant role in security tasks in India's general elections in the past few years.

Source: Xinhua