Amid reports about desperate attempts of the Pakistan-sponsored terror groups to revive their activities in the remotest hilly areas of the Union Territory, the Jammu and Kashmir has decided to rejuvenate the virtually 'defunct' Village Defence Committees (VDCs) to frustrate evil designs of anti-national forces.
After holding a special camp for VDC members in the Kathua district, now Reasi Police has decided to organize a special exercise for those who did not check their weapons and fired for long.
"A schedule of one-week training will be helpful for nearly 6000 VDC members, including 20 women of district Reasi who are deployed in their own villages for safety and security of villagers", Senior Superintendent of Police, Reasi, Shalinder Singh said.
Considering it an invaluable asset to the department and a force multiplier for the security of the region, Singh chalked out a detailed strategy for practice fire for the members of VDCs of district Reasi.
VDCs set up in the mid-1990s in Jammu province
The VDCs were set up in the mid-1990s with an aim to strengthen the security of people living in remote and mountainous areas of Doda, Kishtwar, Ramba, Rajouri, Reasi, Kathua, and Poonch districts of the Jammu region. Later VDCs were constituted in plains of Jammu, especially in border villages to check infiltration.
The members of these committees not only guard the identified villages along the border, but also the infrastructural installations in and around them.
Over 4100 VDCs in J&K
As per the official data, there are 4,125 VDCs in the Union Territory (UT) and the Army and Police train them from time to time in weapons-handling and intelligence-gathering skills. There are five members in a VDC and two of its members, which are called SPOs, are getting wages at the rate of Rs 18,000 per month.
Carved in the mid-1990s to combat Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the VDCs remain indispensable even after more than two decades of their inception.
A VDC in Kulali village near Hill Kaka in Poonch where Operation "Sarp Vinash" was carried out by the Army in 2003 played a significant role in combating terrorists. The security forces had killed over 60 terrorists in the operation.
