STATE HOME GUARDS A NEGLECTED FORCE AND EXPLOITED POLICE OFFICERS

PANJIM: The State Home Guards has not only been a neglected force, but also an exploited and misused one for years by police officers and ministers. The ill-treatment of this voluntary force ranges from being ‘employed as servants’ at their own work place to doing the domestic chores of their ‘masters.’ The homeguards are given inhumane treatment by the police officers of the ranks of PI and DySPs.  There are complaints on anonymous grounds that Chandrakant Salgaonkar most of time calls them in bad words in their mother's names etc.

In the past couple of days, the Home Guards are being forced to clear the garbage from a room adjacent to their main office on the ground floor of police headquarters.

Sources said the Home Guards were asked to clear the trash from the room and unload it in a police van. In fact, some journalists were witness to the incident.

“The department had appointed a contractor to clear the trash from the room, but the job was instead forced on the Home Guards. The women Guards were asked to clear the electrical equipments, chairs and other waste materials from the room and unload it in a police van,” said a Home Guard.

This ill-treatment coincidentally comes on Women’s Day. “If we disagree to our seniors, we are threatened and harassed. Many a times, our daily wage, which is a meager amount, is also deducted,” said another Guard.  Ironically, the ill-treatment occurs right under the nose of senior officers, whose air-conditioned offices are located on the first floor of the headquarters.

In December last, Home Guards are performing odd job as sweepers, dhobis, cooks, barbers and even working at residences of police officers.  If this was not enough, the Home Guards are also deployed at residences of ministers for their domestic work.

One of the Home Guards rule says that they are ‘to promote communal harmony and give help to the administration in protecting weaker sections of the society’. But the force continues to be misused, as senior officers have been willfully blind to the predicaments of this force.  Home Guard officials were not available for comments till late night.