Demand for revival of VDCs grows louder
The massacre of six minority community people, including two minors, in Dhangri village, just 7-8-km away from Rajouri town, has triggered the demand for immediate revival and strengthening of the Village Defence Committees (VDCs) in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch.
The agitated people from Dhangri and adjoining villages warned of mass migration if the administration fails to strengthen VDCs, which has now been rechristened as Village Defence Groups (VDGs), and ensure foolproof security of minority community forthwith.
On Sunday evening, two-armed terrorists barged into Hindu-dominated Dangri village and confirmed identities through Aadhaar before gunning the innocent people down.
“There has been deep anguish among the people against the massacre of innocent Hindus in the village. It has created a sense of insecurity among villagers who demand immediate revival and strengthening of VDCs at par with VDCs in Doda and Kishtwar. The people have threatened to start mass migration from their respective villages if the administration fails to strengthen VDCs by equipping them with sophisticated weapons without further delay,” Bharat Bhushan, Vice-Chairman, Municipal Council Rajouri told reporters.
He said there was a VDC in the area but police had taken away weapons of those VDC members who were above 60 and didn’t replace them with others. “Had these people been equipped with sophisticated weapons, this massacre would have been avoided. We also demand that night vigil and deployment of the army in the area should be increased,” Bhushan said.
Baburam Sharma, Sarpanch Muradpur Panchayat in Rajouri said, “We spotted some unidentified people in our Panchayat Muradpur few days back and the matter was brought into the notice of administration. Thereafter, an incident involving the killing of two civilians took place outside army camp on December 16. Now, this massacre has taken place and it is the total failure of the security apparatus in Rajouri. We demand that the Police should immediately return all our guns which had been taken away from us and VDCs should be revived without any delay”.
Pertinently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while interacting with a BJP delegation from J&K led by party’s general secretary Sunil Sharma in March last year, had assured that all the revival and strengthening of VDCs in Doda and Kishtwar with change in their nomenclature. Called as VDGs, it was decided that each VDG would have eight to 10 members depending on the requirement and they would be paid equal remuneration every month by the government.
According to the sources, the sanctioned strength of VDCs in Rajouri district was 700 against which 683 were constituted. In Poonch, there were a total of 250 sanctioned VDCs against which only 50 percent (125) were constituted.
Talking to the reporters after visiting the victim families, Director General of Police (DGP), J&K Dilbag Singh has assured that they would soon conduct a security review in the area and all necessary measures would be put in place to ensure a safe and secured atmosphere for the people.
In the 1990s, the VDCs were created for the defence of people living in far-flung and remote areas when the terrorism was at its peak. The VDC men were instrumental in killing a large number of terrorists and had defended the people from several terrorist attacks.
