Home guards postpone strike for 25 days

Bareilly: The scheduled seven-day strike of UP homeguards from June 1-7 was postponed for the next 25 days following assurance from home guard minister Awadhesh Prasad that apposite action will be taken to fulfil their demands. The agitators pressed demands for hike in salary and provision of facilities similar to that of police force. Talking to TOI, district president of UP Avatnik Adhikariand Karamchari Association, Arjun Singh, said, “In spite of repeated assurance from the state government and instructions from the Supreme Court, home guards in UP are drawing a salary of only Rs 250 per day whereas our counterparts in many other states are drawing much better pay.Members of our association had also planned to gherao the home guard head quarters on June 8. We have demanded a salary of Rs 625 per day according to instructions of the apex court, along with other facilities such as pension, allocation of Rs 1 lakh on retirement and increasing ‘vardi bhatta’ (dress allowance) to Rs 1,600. We also demanded a service period of at least 11 months.” The agitators staging a sit-in at the Seth Damodar park also pressed for regularisation of service for many others before June 25, failing which they threatened to block the Bareilly-New Delhi highway.