Rural watchmen in Haryana received a big gift from the state government on the occasion of Rakshabandhan on Thursday. The government has increased the honorarium that watchmen or chowkidars, who work under the Development and Panchayat Department receive to Rs 11,000 per month. Before this, watchmen in rural areas received an honorarium amount of Rs 7,000; this has now been increased by Rs 4,000.
More than 7,000 watchmen working to provide security in villages will benefit from this increase. Not only this, but the government will also provide the facility with 12% Employee Provident Fund (EPF) annually to these watchmen. A delegation of rural watchmen from a total of eight districts including Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Charkhi Dadri, Fatehabad, Hisar, Sirsa and Karnal met with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Chandigarh on Thursday.
The chowkidars met Khattar under the leadership of Krishan Bedi, who serves as the political secretary to the CM. Bedi has for a long time, been advocating for an increase in the honorarium and allowances of rural watchmen. During the meeting, there was a long discussion regarding their demands. Apart from the increase in his honorarium, the CM made many other big announcements. The uniform allowance given to rural watchmen has also been increased to Rs 4,000 per annum. Earlier this allowance was Rs 2,500 per annum and was increased by Rs 1,500.
Not only this, the chowkidars will now get a new cycle after five-year intervals. Earlier, watchmen were provided with a cycle only once. They will be given Rs 1,000 annually for lathis and batteries.
On this occasion, the CM said that the government has done the work of changing the system and has ensured that all the sanitation workers and other workers get their honorarium on time every month. The latest figures are available automatically through the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP). Works like making BPL ration cards, old age pension, Ayushman Bharat Yojana cards are also being done through PPP. The scheme is directly benefiting the villagers and there is an atmosphere of happiness among the citizens. The rural watchmen of the villages under Municipal Corporation will be adjusted to other posts as per their qualifications. This decision will prove to be very effective for the watchmen. Rural Chowkidars will be adjusted for the posts in the Municipal Corporation as per their qualifications.
