Ahead of Diwali, Uttar Pradesh govt ends services of 25,000 Home Guards

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Under pressure from the Supreme Court to pay them at par with the Police constables, the Yogi Adityanath government on Tuesday terminated the services of 25,000 Home Guards in the Uttar Pradesh Police Department.

In an order, the state Police headquarters in Prayagraj stated that 25,000 Home Guards will be relieved from their duties.

"The decision to end 25,000 Home Guard services was taken on August 28 this year in a meeting chaired by Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary," said an order issued by Additional Director General (ADG) B.P. Jogdand.

More than 99,000 Home Guards also stand to lose regular employment, as the state government has cut the number of days they are required to report for duty from 25 to 15 days.

The state government spokesman said the decision was taken due to financial constraints. The Supreme Court had asked the state government to make the daily allowances of the UP Home Guards at par with the UP Police constables.

The UP Home Guards are mostly deployed for the traffic management system in the state, which is now likely to face issues.

The Home Department had deployed the 25,000 Home Guards around a year back to fill up the vacancies in the Police Department.

The Home Guards would earlier get a daily allowance of around Rs 500, which was raised to Rs 672 on the Supreme Court's orders. This is said to have added to UP Police's budgetary constraints. Home Guards do not have any fixed monthly salary and are paid on the basis of number of days of duty.