STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: A delegation of Bharatiya Janta Party led by its Kashmir Incharge Sunil Sharma met Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi and discussed issues related to Village Defence Committees (VDCs) and Dhok Defence Committees (DDCs). Acting on the directions of BJP J&K Chief, Ravinder Raina, the delegation highlighted a number of issues. “While apprising Home Minister regarding various problems being faced by VDCs/ DDCs, the delegation also briefed him about long pending demands of these committees which included regularisation of VDCs/DDCs, regularisation of their salaries, filling vacancies urgently and providing salaries to unpaid members of the committees also through Direct Benefit Transfer in their accounts,” a member of delegation said.
The Minister gave a patient hearing to all demands and took swift decisions regarding some on the spot. He immediately directed the ministry officials to prepare proper proposal regarding salaries of unpaid members and assured that all their genuine demands shall be resolved soon.
Those who accompanied the delegation included Thakur Basant Raj, Narinder Kotwal, Mohan Lal (Udhampur), Uttam Chand ( Kathua), Suresh Kumar (Samba) , Suresh Kumar (Doda), Prateek Kumar, Chuni Lal, Amar Chand and Joginder Kumar (Paddar).
Pertinent to mention here that Village Defence Committees (VDCs) were first setup in mid-1990s in Chenab Valley for enabling people to adopt self-defence in hilly villages against terrorism and consisted of villagers as well as police officers. Following, killing of a Kashmiri-Hindu Sarpanch in June 2020, former J&K Police Chief Shesh Pal Vaid had said that Hindus and minority Muslims should be armed and Village Defence Committees be set-up with proper planning. The first VDC was set up under supervision of Shesh Pal Vaid when he was a Superintendent of Police in Bagankote village, Udhampur (now Reasi) in 1995.