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| Expedite revival of VDCs: Home Ministry to J&K Govt | | Rajouri terror attack fallout | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 3: Amid repeated incidents of terror attacks on the members of the minority community by Pakistan-sponsored terrorist groups, the demand of reviving the virtually 'defunct' Village Defence Committees (VDCs) gained momentum to frustrate evil designs of anti-national forces. Sources said that after the Dhangri terror attack, the Union Home Ministry asked the J&K government to expedite the process of reviving VDCs as early as possible. After the gruesome killings of six persons, including two minor children, this demand has become louder because the VDC of Dangri village had earlier foiled many terrorist attacks in the past but the group was disbanded.
“Strengthening of VDCs is a must to restore shattered confidence of the people”, Dheeraj Sharma Sarpanch of village Dangri told media persons. He reminded that in the past VDCs had played a very important role in containing terrorism in this belt.
Responding to the demands of the locals, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha announced on Monday that ex-servicemen and VDCs will be strengthened further and the government will take some more steps for them.
In March 2022, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that all VDCs will be revived and more would be set up as per requirements, their nomenclature will be changed and every member will be paid.
“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,” Shah said in his meeting with the BJP leader and VDC members in March 2022.
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 UT general secretary Sunil Sharma.
Shah had 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 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, Shah assured the delegation.
The VDCs were set up in the mid-1990s with an aim to strengthen the security of people living in remote and mountainous areas of Doda, Kishtwar, Ramba, Rajouri, Reasi, Kathua, and Poonch districts of the Jammu region. Later VDCs were constituted in the plains of Jammu, especially in border villages to check infiltration.
The members of these committees not only guard the identified villages along the border and the infrastructural installations in and around them.
As per the official data, there are 4,125 VDCs in the Union Territory (UT) and the Army and Police train them from time to time in weapons-handling and intelligence-gathering skills. There are five members in a VDC and two of its members, which are called SPOs, are getting wages at the rate of Rs 18,000 per month.
Carved in the mid-1990s to combat Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the VDCs remain indispensable even after more than two decades after their inception. |
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