Centre's Green Light To Village Groups For Extra Layer Of Defence In J&K
NDTV
The current system of assigning one or two special police officers, or SPOs, with village defence groups, or VDGs, will be discontinued, the Home Ministry said in an order
Groups of residents in Jammu and Kashmir's villages will be enrolled for local defence before the Union Territory's delimitation process starts, sources have said. The government has cleared the formation of village defence groups, or VDGs, which can respond to threats in areas such as those with hilly terrain where the local police presence is thin, sources said.
"Right now we are in a crucial phase. The delimitation exercise will be started and elections are to be held, so to give a sense of confidence among villagers in hilly terrains, this step has been taken," said a senior officer in the Home Ministry, who asked not to be named.
Each VDG will have eight to 10 members of the same rank and pay, which will be credited to their accounts by the government every month.
The concept of VDG has existed in Jammu and Kashmir for a while, but the members left after they were not paid for a long time.