States 'blatantly, willfully' not implementing SC order on home guards pay: Par panel

A parliamentary panel has observed that most of the state governments and union territories have "blatantly and willfully" not implemented the Supreme Court judgment on increasing the duty allowance of home guards saying it reflected their "casual attitude".
The parliamentary standing committee on home affairs, headed by senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, also said just five states have implemented the apex court order for enhancing duty allowance of home guards to the minimum pay which police personnel are entitled to.
"The committee is extremely disappointed to note that the state governments and union territories are blatantly and willfully not implementing the Supreme Court judgment and despite repeated reminders by the home ministry, only five states/UTs have implemented the judgment," the panel said in its report submitted to Parliament today.

The committee noted that most of the states have failed to implement the judgment of the Supreme Court on increasing the duty allowance of home guards to the minimum pay which police personnel are entitled to.
Moreover, some of the states have even failed to furnish a reply to the Ministry's attempts to seek the status of the implementation work.
Expressing anguish over "such a casual attitude" of the state governments, the committee said it was further displeased to note that even the UTs, which are under the administrative control of the home ministry have failed to implement the judgment, with the exception of the NCT of Delhi.

The committee feels that this points to a serious lack of administrative accountability. "The committee also observes that some of the states such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Tripura are paying paltry rates of duty allowance that may not be even equal to the minimum wages in these states".

"The committee is of the view that this is an extremely sorry state of affairs and recommends that the Home Ministry must take urgent steps to ensure that all states implement the Supreme Court judgment in letter and spirit so as to bring uniformity in the rates of duty allowance paid to home guards across the country," it said.

The committee also recommended that the ministry should write to the state governments, which have not furnished a reply on the issue, seeking an explanation from them for not responding to the repeated reminders of the ministry.
The committee recommended that the Home Ministry should issue a reminder to those states/UTs, which are yet to implement the judgment of the Supreme Court, and direct them to implement the judgment without any further delay.
"The committee also recommends that if the states/UTs fail to implement the judgment within six months, the (Home) Minister may convene a meeting of all the state ministers concerned to discuss this issue with them," it said.