Hyderabad: The Telangana government has given sops to the lowly-paid Home Guards in the state. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, during an interaction with the Home Guards at his camp office in Hyderabad Wednesday, announced increasing their monthly salary to Rs20,000 (Dh1,140) from the present 12,000, meeting one of their long standing demands.
Pointing out that the three previous governments made unsuccessful attempts to regularise the jobs of Home Guards but the courts struck it down, the Chief Minister announced a series of measures to help the Home Guards in getting regular jobs. They include 25 per cent reservation in the recruitment of constables, 15 per cent reservation in recruitment of Reserved Constables, 20 per cent quota in drivers’ recruitment, 25 per cent in fire services and 10 per cent in communications department.
The Chief Minister chided the opposition parties for creating obstacles in regularising teachers and employees on contract by filing cases in the courts. “I was pained when the regularisation of the contract teachers was struck down by the court”, he said.
The measures will benefit more than 240,00 Home Guards in the state.
The Home Guards in the state were struggling for decades to get their service conditions improved and get the facilities at par with constables.
The chief minister also announced annual increment of Rs1,000 per month for them. The other sops include double bed room houses for all the Home Guards, health insurance for their families, 30 per cent additional allowance to the Home Guards working in traffic department, four pairs of uniform per year for the Home Guards at par with constables, 6 months maternity leave for lady Home Guards and 15 months paternity leave for the male Home Guards, diet allowance on par with the police constables for the Home Guards on safeguarding duty, Rs10,000 instead of Rs5,000 to be paid for last rites, free treatment in government hospitals.
Director General of Police M Mahinder Reddy, who was present on the occasion thanked the Chief Minister for the welfare measures and responding in a humanitarian way to the problems of the Home Guards. “This will inspire the Home Guards to work with double vigour”, he said.
