Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 9: Peeved over failure of the Government to pay the honorarium to the members of the VDCs across Jammu region for the past several years, Harsh Dev Singh- Chairman JKNPP & former Minister, today staged a dharna in Jammu seeking justice for the aggrieved members of various Village Defence Committees across the UT.
Talking to media persons on the occasion, Harsh Dev Singh said there were 4248 VDCs functioning in 10 districts of Jammu region with almost 25000 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 VDC 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”, he explained and added that SPOs deserved adequate salary as well as regularization policy in view of 24 hours duty while the arrears of VDCs needed to be cleared without any further delay.
Lambasting the BJP for discarding the VDC members to languish and yell on roads for their wages despite they still performing their duties, 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 alleged that after assuming power, BJP ruthlessly ignored and disregarded nationalist people like disposable commodities.
“The exploitation did not end here. The VDC members who were placed under BPL and provided ration under AAY were mercilessly divested of the facilities after these were withdrawn by the previous BJP-PDP Government. Even their children entitled for scholarships under BPL category were also left in lurch and made to suffer,” anguished Harsh rued .
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 they also need to be adequately paid for their services.
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