Bivek Mathur
JAMMU, Oct 1: The Village Defence Guards (VDGs), who have been recently deployed alongside the security forces to keep vigil on the borders in the depth areas, today performed their civic responsibility by assisting the security forces at the Polling Stations in vulnerable areas during the third phase of the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
A total of 40 Assembly constituencies-24 in four districts of Jammu province and 16 in three districts of Kashmir province-went to the polls today. There are 35,000 paid VDGs and thousands more unpaid across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, most of them working in the Jammu province along with the Border Security Force (BSF) and Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP).
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“In each Polling Station located in the vulnerable areas, 3-7 VDG members voluntarily joined the security forces, including the ITBP, CISF, JKP, BSF, and other forces deployed on election duties to ensure that the polling went smoothly,” said Ashok Singh, a VDG member from Samba District.
“Our main role was to assist the security forces in maintaining law and order at the polling stations located close to the border areas, particularly in Jammu, Samba, and Kathua districts on the day of polling,” he said, adding, “Specifically, we helped security personnel identify local voters so that no elements inimical to the democratic exercise could enter the Polling Stations to create any untoward situations.”
According to Singh, there are 350 paid VDGs and hundreds more unpaid in Samba District, performing security-related responsibilities, and almost all of them fulfilled their civic duty within the Polling Stations today.
“And our men have already performed similar roles in the Doda, Kishtwar, Reasi, Rajouri, and Poonchdistricts, where the polling exercise has been completed,” he added.
Mast Ram, a VDG member from Rajpura block in Samba district, said, “Our members performed voluntary service due to the deployment of local police personnel in different Polling Stations across the province.”
“Since this deployment created a staff crunch of local police personnel, our personnel filled this gap by joining the Central forces on polling day, who are not familiar with the demography of the border areas.”
While a senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, appreciated the role of the VDGs in assisting the security forces on polling day, two other officers preferred not to speak on the issue.
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