Home Guards question State Govt's defiance
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 27 2019:
The Manipur Home Guard Employees ' Welfare Association has questioned how far the State Government can defy the Supreme Court's judgement, the High Court of Manipur's direction and the Ministry of Home Affairs' instruction on salaries to be given to Home Guard personnel.
Speaking to media persons at Manipur Press Club here this afternoon, the association's president Y Mangi said that they have been fighting the failure of the State Government to implement the Home Guards' pay scale recommended by the Supreme Court.
A petition was filed at the High Court of Manipur praying for an instruction to the State Government to pay salaries to Home Guard personnel on the scale recommended by the Supreme Court.
Moreover, the Ministry of Home Affairs sent a letter to the Chief Secretary on April 15 last year notifying that a Home Guard personnel's pay should be the cumulative amount of basic pay, grade pay, DA and washing allowance.
The same letter asked the State Government to send a compliance report by September 15 last year, Mangi said.
In the meantime, the Deputy Secretary (Home) submitted an affidavit at the High Court of Manipur which seems to misinterpret the State List, the Union List and the Concurrent List.
As such, the association filed an RTI application to the Manipur State Information Commission seeking details of the affidavit submitted by the Home Department.
As there has been no response to the application till date, a petition was lodged with the Information Commission today, Mangi said.
He said that the monthly duty allowance given to Home Guard personnel is borne 90 per cent by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the remaining 10 per cent by the State Governments.
Moreover, it has already announced that the monthly duty allowance of Home Guard personnel would be borne by the Central Government 100 per cent in the North East region, if there are sound reasons for doing so, Mangi added.