Mumbai: Suprise checks find senior citizens working as civil defence volunteers

“We will be launching an inquiry into the fake mock drills because of which the government money is lost,” a government official added.

The mandate of the civil defence is to carry out an effective role in the field of disaster management. With a national strength of 16 lakhs, the volunteer-based organisation is used to help out the adminsitration in an overstretched disaster-management scenario.

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These volunteers are trained through periodic drills. All of them are paid for participating in these drills.

“A civil defence volunteer is one who flings into action during a fire, a building collapses and other natural calamities, like flood, for the defence of the citizens and also proving them first aid etc.

For this, mock drills are carried out regularly. For the training that is carried out for 10 days, a volunteer is paid Rs 450, while if he is called for mock drills etc, he is paid Rs 150 per day,” said a senior officer of the homeguards.

Surprise checks have revealed that even though the drills were not being carried out, these volunteers were being paid money, said the official.

According to sources, there is a budget of over Rs 15 crore each year for the civil defence by the government, of which, around Rs 2-3 crore is to be spent on their training. Maharashtra presently has 35,000 volunteers who work under the state homeguards.

Interestingly, it has been found that there is a substantial number of citizens aged over 75, who are not physically fit, but continue to be civil defence volunteers. A sizeable chunk also has criminal antecedent.

A concerned homeguard has now sprang into action and laid down new guidelines on the age limit and police verification of the over 35,000 force.

After the department learnt that most of these volunteers are senior citizens, the department has now made it compulsory that a person only between the age of 18 and 35 years can enroll into civil defence and be a part of it till maximum 55 years.

When contacted, Deputy Commandant of Homeguards Sanjay Pande confirmed that the department has issued a circular axing the age limit to 55 years.

The circular, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, also states that the volunteers should get their police verification done. The step was taken after it was found that people having criminal backgrounds were doubling up as volunteers.

“Volunteers who have been excommunicated for having criminal antecedent (being tried in any court of or have been arrested or are on unruly nature) cannot enroll even if they meet the other criteria,” the circular reads.