Assam: 1,500 home guards cite mistreatment, threaten to leave ahead of polling
Cachar is a large district with seven assembly seats. It has 1,086, 090 voters and 1,834 polling stations. Local police, CRPF and other security forces have already been deployed for election
Around 1,500 home guards, who came for election duty in Cachar district of Barak Valley, Assam, which goes to polls on Thursday, have parked themselves at the Silchar railway station, and are threatening to go back without fulfilling their duty due to alleged mistreatment by the local administration.
By Wednesday morning, about a 100 of them had already boarded a train for Guwahati even as the rest of them continue to be at the station. They were allegedly forced to walk almost 5km to the railway station for want of vehicles on Tuesday evening.
Cachar is a large district with seven assembly seats. It has 1,086, 090 voters and 1,834 polling stations. Local police, CRPF and other security forces have already been deployed for election.
But police superintendent Bhanwar Lal Meena sought 69 additional armed security companies to bolster the security arrangement.
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Around 1,500 home guards came to the district after being deployed in upper Assam for the first phase. They say the local administration did not arrange proper food, shelter and water for them. Also, they claimed, that they were supposed to get ₹5,100 for three days of duty, but Cachar administration gave them only ₹900.
“We went to Biswanath district during the first phase where the local administration gave us ₹5,100. As we are not on regular rolls, we don’t get any salary apart from this money. How can we manage for 3-4 days in just ₹900?” questioned a home guard.
“We tried to reach out to the SP and additional SP of Cachar, but they did not respond. They gave us a very unhygienic place to stay where proper drinking water wasn’t available. So we decided to go back,” he added.
While the police department have not responded to the home guards’ allegations, Cachar deputy commissioner Keerthi Jalli assured that home guards’ protest will not hamper the security arrangements for the coming phase of assembly elections.