BSP demands salary hike for home guards

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today criticized the Jammu and Kashmir government for ignoring the plight of its workers, including home guards, and demanded that their monthly honorarium be enhanced in conformity with the Supreme Court directive.

The Supreme court had on April 11, 2015 directed all states and union territories to increase the salary of home guard personnel to the level of state police constables.

After a lapse of over three years, the state government on April 26 accorded sanction for enhancing the honorarium from Rs 60 per day to Rs 300 per day in favour of 4,300 home guards, which is nothing but a crude joke, the BSP's state president Som Raj Majotra told reporters here.

He said a number of states, including Himachal Pradesh andPunjab, have implemented the apex court order and increased the monthly salary of home guard personnel but in Jammu and Kashmir, the hike announced by the government recently was merely an eyewash.

"Home guards in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh are getting a duty allowance of Rs 29,565 and Rs 17,134 per month, respectively. After the recent government order, the duty allowance of state home guards is only 2,700 per month, he said.

We want to bring it to the notice of the government and want it to implement the apex court order in true spirit by hiking their salaries to the scale given to police constables at the time of joining service," he said, demanding that nine-day per month duty restrictions be withdrawn.

He accused the government of discriminating against the home guards who also discharge their special duties as police personnel on the directions of the home department.

Majotra said the amount being paid to the home guards was meager, and they were unable to meet the expenses of their families.

The BSP leader also appealed to the government to consider the genuine demands of anganwadi workers, helpers, and clerical staff on humanitarian grounds.

Anganwadi workers are on indefinite strike since February 1 in support of their various demands including hike in honorarium, seniority list, implementation of the pension scheme, release of pending salaries and gratuity of Rs two lakh for workers and Rs one lakh for helpers on retirement.