VDF men on duty at Sagolband Bijoygovinda shots a 20-year old youth. VDF man arrested by personnel along with 53 pieces of SP Capsule and 8 pieces of N-10 tablets. A rickshaw puller was pushed into the river by VDF for refusing to give Rs 20. VDF men beat up Traffic police ASI at Naran Konjin. VDF fires at liquor vendor in Paona Bazar for refusing to pay Rs 5. Youths harassed by VDF at frisking point. It is endless. Thanks to Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh. It was due to him that we are getting a slipshod force called Village Defence Force pretending as men in Khaki. The VDFs also wear the khaki and many of them wear police insignia. They wield both .303 rifles and SLRs. The force was raised in his second stint as Chief Minister. The SPOs of Heirok modeled on the infamous Salwa Judum of Chhatisgarh was its forerunner. Just as Salwa Judum was formed to combat the Naxalites, initially 1550 VDFs were recruited in 2009, in the name of combating insurgency. At present, the number of VDF personnel has crossed 10,000. There were also complaints that the recruitment process was unfair and many of the selected candidates had failed in physical efficiency tests.
Now, the new Home Minister Gaikhangam is saying he will review the deployment of VDFs. He also said, he begun consultations on how best the Village Defence Force can be utilised, as the public is clearly not satisfied with them. It is rather interesting. By making such a statement, Gaikhangam has put a question mark on the policies of his predecessor. In fact, he has made his first move. It remains to be seen how it plays out in the political chess board. The VDFs are deployed alongside regular policemen or the police commandos in police stations or police outposts, after a month’s basic training. They assist the police at frisking points or rather they do the frisking while the police or commandos idle away time nearby. That is precisely why, numerous incidents of the VDFs harassing and robbing the public. They are given a pittance of Rs 3000 monthly remuneration, while in fact they are being overused by the police. The VDFs themselves have highlighted their grievances in a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister last year in October. They had complained that the meagre amount provided to the VDF personnel do not commensurate with the heavy task entrusted to VDFs who are engaged in patrolling, ROP, QRT, RP escort and traffic duties over and above assisting the police in the maintenance of law and order. They had asked for enhancing the remuneration to Rs 10,000.
The Home Minister talked about reviewing the deployment. But, a more important question would be – has it served its purpose. Where are the positive outcomes of raising the force? When your expenses on paying monthly remuneration have crossed Rs 36 crores in a year, questions must be asked on the utility of the force. The then SPF government had approved the recruitment of the additional VDF personnel despite concerns from the state finance department about meeting the expenditure from the state`s own resources as it will affect the state fiscal reform target. But the Cabinet approved it based on the police department`s logic of requirement of more personnel as the present strength is inadequate to assist the work of district police. The government is contemplating an increase in the remuneration from 3000 to 5000 and of deploying VDF in the hill districts. The state has already a monolithic police organization, if one looks through the prism of police-people ratio. Add to that, the 10,000 strong Village Defence Force and also the huge presence of army and paramilitary forces in the state. This is simply militarization of the state. Home Minister Gaikhangam needs to review the police organization and the security apparatus existing in the state in a holistic manner.
