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| JKNPP flays Govt for denying honorarium to VDCs | | | 
Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 2: Lambasting the govt for denying honorarium to thousands of Village Defence Committee (VDC) members engaged around two decades back in remote and far flung villages of Jammu province, Harsh Dev Singh Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) Chairman and Former Minister today called for personal indulgence of Union Home Minister and Lt Governor J&K for addressing their pathetic plight. He said that since all these VDC members belonged to Jammu region and that preciously seemed to be the reason behind their neglect and shabby treatment regretting further that the scope of discrimination against Jammu province seemed to have been extended to cover even the VDC members who had performed the most significant role in curbing militancy.
Addressing the media, Harsh Dev Singh pointed out that with an aim to contain the activities of militants in rural areas and to ensure security and safety of the identified villages, the Village Defence Committees (VDCs) in Jammu region had been defending the mountainous and remote hamlets since 1996. When the militancy in J&K was at its peak and authorities were unable to protect the lives in far-off villages, several people, especially the youth took the initiative and volunteered themselves as VDC members to safeguard their community from militant attacks, Harsh divulged.
Revealing statistics, he said there were 4248 VDCs functioning in 10 districts of Jammu region with almost 36000 people working as members. “There are normally eight members including three SPOs in each VDC with an internal arrangement that the honorarium paid to the SPOs has to be equally distributed among all the members of the committee. When the revised honorarium started to get transferred into the accounts of SPOs directly instead of cash, the other members were deprived of their wages. This is the flaw in the system which has marginalized the members of the VDCs despite their sincere continuance with the duty to protect their people from the brunt of terror attacks”, regretted Harsh.
Lambasting the BJP for discarding the VDC members to languish and yell on roads for their wages, Harsh Dev Singh said the nationalist people who rose to the occasion to become protective shield of the people, were used by the Saffron party in its election campaigns for political gains. He regretted that after assuming power it ruthlessly ignored and disregarded them like disposable commodities.
Calling upon the Lt. Governor to take cognizance of the sacrifices made by the VDCs for more than two decades, Harsh Dev Singh asserted that the deprived members perform similar duties as SPOs and as such their honorarium should be brought at par with the latter. “Their pending wages which have remained unpaid for years should be immediately released. The facilities which were withdrawn from them should also be restored in their favour without any delay. They are the real heroes, brave hearts and the saviours of the people. Their sacrifices should be acknowledged with dignity and honour. Panthers Party shall not relent unless they are served rights and justice”, roared Harsh.
Surinder Chouhan District President Jammu (Rural) of JKNPP was also present in the press conference. |
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