SRINAGAR: Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has planned to revive and restructure the Village Defence Committees (VDCs) and pay the members for their services, reports appearing in the media said. The decision was announced after a BJP delegation met the Home Minister, Amit Shah early this week.
“The Village Defence Committees will now be called the Village Defence Groups (VDGs) and their members as Village Defence Group Guards (VDGGs). Each VDG will have eight to 10 members and all of them will have equal rank,” newspaper Daily Excelsior quoted Shah as having said.
“In more vulnerable areas, persons (V1 category) who shall be leading or coordinating the VDG would be paid Rs 4500 per month and other persons (V2 category) who are members of these VDGs on voluntary basis will be paid a uniform rate Rs 4000 per month,” Srinagar newspaper Greater Kashmir quoted Under Secretary to the Government of India MHA Department of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh Affairs Ipsita S Paul as having said. “VDGs will function under the direction of SP or SSP of the concerned district,”
This and other assurances pertaining to the VDCs were given by Shah to the VDC members who met him in New Delhi this evening led by BJP Jammu and Kashmir general secretary Sunil Sharma.
Shah is reported to have assured the delegation that the MHA will issue an order shortly regarding revival of the VDCs by renaming them as VDGs and all the members will be paid honorarium by the Government instead of the previous arrangement in which one or two Special Police Officers (SPOs) were attached with each VDC and their remuneration were shared by all.
Each VDG, after revival, will have eight to 10 members depending on the requirement and all of them will have equal rank. They will be paid equal remuneration every month by the Government which will be directly credited to their accounts.
The present system of one or two SPOs being posted with VDCs for payment to all members will be immediately discontinued, the VDC members quoted Shah as having assured them.
They said the Union Home Minister also announced that the non-existent VDCs will be immediately revived and vacancies arising out of deaths of the members or having quit due to lack of payment or other reasons will also be filled shortly.
On Wednesday, BJP leader, Sunil Sharma, who led the delegation addressed media in Jammu, He said the VDC salary distribution system was not streamlined as the salary from SPOs were distributed among all the members. After a court intervention prevented SPOs from giving their salary to the VDC pool, the non-SPO VDC members were left in the lurch. This led to the dysfunction of the counter-insurgent force. With the MHA now offering a salary to all the VDC’s, the network will be revived as VDGs.
Around 27515 people were associated with 4890 VDCs in 10 districts in Jammu. It was not immediately known if the VDCs are being revived in almost militancy free Jammu alone or they will be constituted in militancy-hit areas of Kashmir as well.
