Dr Jitendra gives credit to PM, HM
New Groups will work under control of concerned SSP/SP
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 2: A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s assurance, the Ministry of Home Affairs today announced payment of Rs 4500 per month to the leader of Village Defence Group (VDG), previously known as Village Defence Committees (VDCs), and Rs 4000 per month to the members, benefitting 27515 persons.
Currently, most of the VDCs are unpaid while others are getting meagre payment of Rs 500 or Rs 700 per month prompting many members to quit. However, the Home Ministry’s decision will rejuvenate the rechristened VDGs and majority of members are expected to come back.
An MHA order issued today said the members of the Village Defence Group (VDG) will be designated as the Village Defence Guards (VDGs) instead of earlier designation of VDCs.
In more vulnerable areas (V1 category), the persons who will lead or coordinate the VDG would be paid Rs 4500 per month while other persons (V2 category), who are members of these VDGs on voluntary basis will be paid at uniform rate of Rs 4000 per month.
“The VDGs will function under the direction of SSP/SP of the concerned district,” the MHA order said.
However, in case of a vacancy, the MHA said, the decision to fill up it, will be taken later.
Soon after the MHA issued the order, Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh extended thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for constituting the Village Defence Groups in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Thanks PM Narendra Modi. Thanks HM Amit Shah. Orders issued for constituting Village Defence Groups in Jammu and Kashmir. A long standing demand addressed,” Dr Jitendra Singh, who is Member Parliament from Udhampur-Doda-Kathua constituency where most of the VDCs (now VDGs) exist, tweeted.
BJP UT president Ravinder Raina also thanked the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for historical decision of revival of VDCs by renaming them as VDGs and payment of Rs 4500 and Rs 4000 per month to the VDG leaders and members.
“This was a long pending demand of the BJP,” Raina said.
As per the official data, there are around 4890 sanctioned VDCs (now VDGs) in Jammu but, out of them, only 4153 were constituted.
The VDCs have a total of 27515 members, who will immensely benefit with the Home Ministry’s decision to pay them Rs 4000-4500 per month.
Presently, only 1860 VDCs were being paid a meagre amount while 2293 were unpaid.
As per the payment procedure which was in force till now, one or two Special Police Officers (SPOs) were attached with one VDC and their salary was distributed among all VDC members. The VDCs with one SPO were getting just Rs 500-700 per month while those with two SPOs used to get around Rs 1000 per month.
However, during the past some time, most of the SPOs attached with the VDCs had been posted in Police Stations and majority of the VDC members were getting nothing, a result of which many members quit the force.
Several VDCs were rendered non-existent because of no payments.
As per sources, each VDG will have eight to 10 members depending on the requirement. Their monthly remunerations will be directly credited to their accounts.
Acknowledging role of the VDCs since their constitution in nineties in tackling militancy, sources said that no VDC will be disbanded and rather more will be set up in the area later.
It may be mentioned here that many VDC members had quit as they were without any payment for quite long time now and the administration was also not showing any major concern towards them.
In the nineties, the VDCs were set up for defence of the people living in far-flung and remote areas when the militancy was at its peak and they had defended the people bravely from many militant attacks.
The VDCs were instrumental in killing a large number of militants.
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