Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh has assured the home guards in the state that their demands for regularization and payment of pending arrears will be taken up and resolved by his government soon after coming to power.The assurance came after a group of home guards met Patiala MLA Preneet Kaur to bring to her attention the problems they had been facing under the Badal regime. There are about 12,000 home guards working in the State on various duties in the aid of the Punjab Police.The home guards were for years being paid wages on the rates fixed by the Deputy Commission (popularly known as DC Rate), without any other financial and service benefits, even though their duties were no less arduous than those of policemen. They had approached the Supreme Court, which had ruled that Home Guards should be paid 30 days salary of a police constable.
After a year of the ruling, the Badal government gave them basic pay of a police constable minus incremental benefits, dearness allowance and other service benefits, the home guards told Preneet. Further, they said, the arrears on account of enhanced salary were still not paid in several districts.The home guards rued this discriminatory treatment meted out to them by the Badal government, saying they were fed up with the poor governance of the SAD-BJP combine. They added that no category of employees was happy with the government's attitude towards the working class.Further, they said that they had been denied free travel facility despite the fact that an amount of Rs. 3.84 crore stood deposited with the State Transport Department on this count. They urged Captain Amarinder, through Preneet, to address their concerns on priority on coming to power.