In News
- Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has given a nod to the formation of village defence groups (VDGs) in Jammu and Kashmir.
About village defence committees (VDCs)
- History:
- The VDCs were constituted in 1995 in 10 districts of the Jammu region to fight militants in far-off places.
- Around 26,567 locals were recruited into them.
- Reason for Disbandment:
- Most of the VDCs were disbanded by the previous governments following allegations of misuse of weapons in several cases.
- New Structure:
- The members of the Village Defence Groups will be designated as Village Defence Guards.
- People will work as soldiers without uniforms on the ground.
- Pay Scale:
- In more vulnerable areas, the order stated that persons (V1 category) who shall be leading/ coordinating the VDG would be paid ?4,500 per month ;
- Other persons (V2 category) who are members of these VDGs on a voluntary basis will be paid a uniform rate of ?4,000 per month.
- Benefits:
- VDGs will use available resources on the ground at the optimum.
- These groups will keep them well motivated and in a state of preparedness.
Source: HT
