Transparent attendance, salary system for home guard jawans in pipeline

The home guards department is working on various plans to make the duties and payment of salaries to jawans transparent following the arrest of five officers in

The home guards department is working on various plans to make the duties and payment of salaries to jawans transparent following the arrest of five officers in the salary scam in Gautam Buddha Nagar district on Wednesday

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Principal secretary, Home Guards, Anil Kumar on Thursday said, “The department has a data base of 95,000 jawans. We are mulling over the biometric, retina identity or location-based app attendance of the jawans. Talks are going on with the Uttar Pradesh Development System Corporation Limited (UPDESCO) to use technology for attendance of jawans and preparation of a muster roll.”

The department will also use techniques to cross-check the attendance of jawans. Instead of one, there will be two copies of the muster roll jointly signed by the police or administrative officer of the department, where the jawans were deployed on duty, and the district commandant, he said.

Although salary of the jawans was currently credited into their accounts, the Gautam Buddha Nagar incident clearly showed that the procedure for direct transfer of the salary could be manipulated as well.

Now, jawans would have to submit a copy of a cancelled cheque for verification of their bank account number, Kumar said, adding divisional commandants had been directed to cross-check the data base of the jawans in the districts under their division.

The Supreme Court had ordered for a hike in the salary of jawans and payment of arrears from December 6, 2016 to September 2019. The salary for October is also to be credited into their accounts by November 25. The commandants and supervisors have been directed to verify the duties of the jawans with departments where the jawans have been deployed on duty, he said.

Replying to a question, Kumar said the department had received a preliminary report of investigation by the police regarding fraudulent withdrawal of the salaries of jawans by the officers.

Strict action will be taken against the culprits and they will be dismissed from service, he said.

The home guards department had a data base of 95,000 jawans enrolled with the department. To ensure that all the jawans get duty, the department used the randomisation, algorithm and rotation methods. The district commandant sends jawans to the police department, traffic department, district administrative offices, secretariat and for other outsourcing services.

Each jawan gets around nine months’ duty and their salary is transferred to their bank account through RTGS payment method, he said.

During investigation, the Gautam Buddha Nagar district authorities found that the accused Home Guard officers allegedly forged signatures of station house officers (SHO), home guard jawans and other officials concerned to withdraw salaries of home guards who were absent for more than 50% of their deputation days.

On November 13, the police had registered an FIR and on November 18, the case was transferred to the crime branch for investigation.

The salary registers were burnt within hours of the case being transferred to the crime branch.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered the district magistrate of Gautam Buddha Nagar and senior police officials to take immediate action in the case.

Five officers, including a divisional commandant, an assistant district commandant and three platoon commanders were arrested on Wednesday.