Assam To Amend Village Defence Organisation Act To Make It More Professional: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati, Jan 29 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday appealed to members of the Village Defence Organisation (VDO) to selflessly dedicate themselves to transform it into an ideal social organisation, responsive to the problems of people living in rural areas.

In the changing dynamics of society, crime and its manifestation, the organisation needs to reorient itself and the government will amend the Assam VDO Act, 1966 in the Monsoon Session of the assembly to make it more professional, Sarma said while addressing a function on its 73rd foundation day at the Police Training College in Dergaon.

The chief minister also urged VDO members to cooperate with police in managing law and order situations and eliminate menaces such as 'witch' hunting and theft in religious places.

At present, there are 22,881 registered Village Defence Party (VDP) which have been functioning well throughout but there was a need to create a VDP against each polling booth in the state, he said.

Sarma also paid tributes to the founder of VDO Harinarayan Baruah and urged the members to re-dedicate themselves more to the cause of the people living in the rural areas.

He also released a souvenir and awarded 35 VDPs and 25 circle organisers.

The chief minister inspected the construction works for the upgradation of Police Training College to a world-class academy at Dergaon. The project is being implemented by Assam Police Housing Corporation Limited at a cost of Rs 156.51 crore, as per a statement.

Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, Rajya Sabha MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, Director-General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, and VDO chief advisor Ranjit Mazumdar were among those present at the function.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)