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| Release unpaid honorarium of VDCs pending for last 5 years: Harsh | | |  Early Times Report
UDHAMPUR, Mar 3: Referring to the announcement of the GOI to revive the honorarium of VDC members rechristened as VDGs, Harsh Dev Singh Chairman-JKNPP and former Minister sought the release of unpaid honorarium of the said Village Defence Committee members pending for the last 4-5 years.
He said that the assurances for future payments to existing VDCs without settling their past claims would be a grave injustice to those who had been performing their duties during the past years without being compensated in any way. He was interacting with a delegation of the existing VDC members who had called on him today at Udhampur.
Pointing towards the constitution of VDCs in 1996, Singh said that the members of the said committees were regularly paid honorarium from the date of such constitution till 2017 after which they were deprived of the same.
The honorarium paid to the VDC SPOs was equally distributed amongst the VDC members as per the prevalent practice. The said practice however was discontinued in 2017 and the entire honorarium credited into the accounts of SPOs resulting in genuine anger and resentment amongst the members of VDCs, said Singh.
Lambasting the BJP govt for discarding the VDC members to languish and yell on roads for their wages for years together, 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. "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who were placed under BPL and provided ration under AAY were mercilessly divested of the facilities after these were withdrawn by the previous BJP-PDP government.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. There have been bitter instances when VDC members succumbed to the miseries and ended their lives. Why the true patriots were forced to take such extreme steps? BJP owes an explanation to the people", anguished Harsh rued.
Calling upon the GOI to take cognizance of the sacrifices made by the VDCs for more than two decades, Singh asserted that the deprived members perform similar duties as SPOs and as such they also need to be adequately paid for their services along with arrears besides restoration of benefits under AAY and scholarships to their families. |
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