New Delhi:
A senior Army officer on Thursday suggested that cellphones should be banned for the troops in operational areas as these were adding to their stress levels by keeping them constantly updated about family problems.
"The problem is not the stress in encounter, the problem is the cellphone and that should be banned," Lt Gen Dipankar Ganguly, an Army Medical Corps officer, said while referring to an Army study carried out in Jammu and Kashmir.
He was speaking to the media on the occasion of the 246th anniversary of the Corps.
Ganguly said cellphones allowed the troops to maintain continuous contact with their families and knowing about their problems, which resulted in higher levels of stress among them.
Commenting on the issue, Director General, Armed Forces Medical Services, Lt Gen N K Parmar said the services had taken a number of steps to tackle stress-related issues among the troops. He said the number of stress-related incidents have come down in recent years.
"All the unit and company commanders have been trained on how to reduce stress levels and how to detect the person who is under stress. Grievance-addressing mechanism has also been streamlined and religious teachers involved in reducing the stress levels," he said.