UP Home Guards Beg For Govt Exchequer After Reports of Sacking

Video producer: Srishti Tyagi

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma

Under pressure from the Supreme Court to pay them at par with the police constables, the Yogi Adityanath government on Tuesday, 15 October, terminated the services of 25,000 Home Guards in the Uttar Pradesh Police Department, reported news agency IANS.

However, Home guards Minister Chetan Chauhan issued a clarification stating that “no formal decision” has been taken.

“We have not received any official letter from the home department. I assure that no one will be removed from their jobs. No formal decision has been taken.”

A day after the reports started doing the rounds, home guards in the state’s Muzaffarnagar held a peaceful protest by ‘begging’ on the roads for the government. The protestors said that the ‘begged money’ will be contributed to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

What Did The Order Say

“The decision to end 25,000 home guard services was taken on 28 August this year in a meeting chaired by Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary,” said an order issued by Additional Director General (ADG) BP Jogdand.

More than 99,000 home guards also stand to lose regular employment, as the state government has cut the number of days they are required to report for duty from 25 to 15 days, according to IANS.

The state government spokesman said the decision was taken due to financial constraints, according to the agency.

The UP home guards are mostly deployed for the traffic management system in the state, which is now likely to face issues.

The Home Department had deployed the 25,000 home guards around a year back to fill up the vacancies in the police department.

The home guards would earlier get a daily allowance of around Rs 500, which was raised to Rs 672 on the Supreme Court's orders. This is said to have added to UP Police's budgetary constraints. The guards do not have any fixed monthly salary and are paid on the basis of number of days of duty.

(With inputs from IANS and ANI)