"Commanders share salary with 1000 personnel"
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 25 2017:
Out of around 2148 Home Guard personnel working under the State Government, almost half of them have been enjoy-ing their salaries without doing duties in collusion with five battalion commanders .
Under this tacit arrangement, the battalion comman- ders have been collecting around Rs 20 lakh in a month from the absentee personnel, alleged the Ma-nipur Home Guard Employ- ees' Welfare Association .
Speaking to media persons at Home Guard head- quarters Lamphelpat today, some representatives of the association maintained that there should not be any post of battalion commander as per the service rules of Home Guard .
Nonetheless, five posts of Home Guard battalion commanders were created somehow when Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar was the DGP of Manipur and the Home Guard personnel were divided and placed under the five commanders .
Out of the total 2148 personnel, only around half of them have been actually doing duties while the other half have been staying away from duties in collusion with the battalion commanders.
Yet they still enjoy their salaries and half of their salaries is shared with the commanders, they alleged .
The five battalion commanders appointed fraudu- lently are Md Rashimuddin, Md Janab Ali, Md Nizamu-ddin, Md Tolen and Md Abdul Hei .
Pointing out that the BJP-led coalition Government has been pledging every now and then they would eradicate corruption from the State, the representatives questioned the Government's silence on such a serious issue of sharing salary between absentee personnel and commanders .
The Manipur Home Guard was established around 1963/64 but Home Guard personnel are given monthly salary of just Rs 5000 including ration money of Rs 1000 .
Taking serious note of the paltry sum given to Home Guards as their monthly salary, the Supreme Court issued an order on March 11, 2015 which directed State Governments to pay Home Guards the salary given to a Police Constable at the time of joining service .
The Supreme Court order mentioned that it should be implemented within three months .
As per the apex Court's order, Home Guards are entitled to monthly salary of Rs 20,902.The High Court of Manipur issued a directive to the State Government on January 12, 2017 to comply with the Supreme Court's order.
However, the State Government has not taken up any action on the matter, they lamented .
Notably, the Manipur Home Guard Employees' Welfare Association laun-ched a relay hunger strike since July 20 this year .
The association's president Y Mangi conveyed that the State Government only offered to hike the Home Guards' salary by Rs 2000/3000 citing the State's unhealthy financial condition in total contradiction to the Supreme Court's order .
The State Government's offer is rather irrational as 90 per cent of the Home Guards' salaries are paid by the Central Government while the State Government bears only the remaining 10 per cent, Mangi said .
Given the State Government's lackadaisical attitude, the association has already filed a petition at the Supreme Court and the apex Court would hear the matter on August 28 .
The association would respect the apex Court's judgement and it would take up its next course of action accordingly.
The State Government has been misinterpreting the Supreme Court's earlier judgment, he added.
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