{"id":225537,"date":"2023-02-07T21:02:49","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T15:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=225537"},"modified":"2023-02-20T14:16:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T08:46:59","slug":"jammu-village-defence-and-governance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/jammu-village-defence-and-governance\/","title":{"rendered":"Jammu, village defence and governance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cJammu, village defence and governance\u201d <\/strong>published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 7th February 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Security<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Security situation in Jammu and Kashmir<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– There is a rise in terror-related strikes in the relatively peaceful Jammu division, especially in the border districts. Recently, the government decided to revive Village Defence Committees(VDCs).<\/p>\n

What are some facts associated with VDCs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

VDCs were set up to instil a sense of self protection<\/strong>. The district\u2019s superintendent of police was mandated to exercise command and contro<\/strong>l.<\/p>\n

VDCs have played a crucial role in containing militancy in the Jammu division<\/strong>, after being set up in the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n

VDC presence was concentrated in remote areas<\/strong>. Their difficult terrain and a meagre presence of security forces made chances of successful operations remote.<\/p>\n

VDCs were trained to hold the front against militants till the arrival of security forces<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What were issues with these VDCs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In several cases, the VDCs have proved to be counterproductive<\/strong>. There were instances of cadres abusing their authority. They faced allegations of human rights violations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A \u2018false notion of power\u2019<\/strong> developed in the minds of the VDC cadre. It led to potentially adverse fallouts. leading to the decision to revive them.<\/p>\n

What are improvements needed in VDCs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Command and control<\/strong>– State policy on the VDGs must now aim to mitigate the negatives. The issue should be viewed through the prism of human resources management of the cadres.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There needs to be an evolution of a hands-down command and control mechanism<\/strong>. The present methodology of being under the superintendent of police may not be the ideal arrangement.<\/p>\n

A good control mechanism<\/strong> is needed to ensure that cadres remain motivated and focused.<\/p>\n

Strengthening Panchayats<\/strong>– The revival of the VDG should be used as an opportunity to empower the local bodies<\/strong>. Panchayats are most suited to understand local dynamics<\/strong> in a conflict zone.<\/p>\n

Panchayats could be entrusted with the task of assisting the local police in an institutionalised manne<\/strong>r.<\/p>\n

This will create advantages such as quality checks<\/strong> on the character of VDG cadres during the selection stage, monitoring their activities and consolidated control<\/strong> through oversight and deterrence.<\/p>\n

Operational level measures<\/strong>– The VDGs should not be involved in proactive intelligence and tactical operations<\/strong>. They must instead remain confined to \u2018self defence and deterrence roles<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cJammu, village defence and governance\u201d published in The Hindu on 7th February 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Security Relevance– Security situation in Jammu and Kashmir News– There is a rise in terror-related strikes in the relatively peaceful Jammu division, especially in the border districts. Recently, the government decided to… Continue reading Jammu, village defence and governance<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10498],"class_list":["post-225537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1702105646},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}