Nagaland village guards announce bandh over noncompliance of court order to enhance their wages

DIMAPUR— The Village Guard Association of Nagaland (VGAN) has announced a bandh on July 27 and 28, from 6 am to 5 pm, in their respective districts to protest the state government’s failure to comply with the court order to enhance the wages of village guards.

Addressing a press conference in Dimapur on Monday, VGAN president Kurithi Jorror said they would continue the agitation until their demands are met.

He also expressed concern over the reduction of Village Guard strength, saying that such move could create problems.

In light of this, the association requested the government to refrain from making any harsh decisions that could exacerbate the existing problems.

Sharing the grievances of the village guards, Jorror said the association had filed a case in the court in 2020 and received judgement in their favour, and in compliance with the court, the chief secretary instituted an Expert Committee the following year He went on to say that the chief secretary reconstituted the expert committee after they approached the Gauhati High Court Kohima bench in December last year but no positive outcome till date.

The next hearing of contempt petition has been fixed on August 4, 2023, he informed.

The president further claimed that the current chief minister had made an announcement to implement a Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) policy for all village guards during its golden jubilee celebration in 2007, following which a monthly deposit of INR 100 was made for a period of five years (maturity period). 

Maintaining that the total amount deposited by 9,583 village guards in the state for 187 months is INR 9,58,300, and the accumulated amount would be approximately INR 17.92 crore, the association requested the concerned authorities to the release the amount.

On minister CL John’s recent comment that Village Guard is an organization, Jorror claimed that it’s a department. He said a total of 8206 village guard personnel’s pay is given by the central government.