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Don't see Home Guards at rly stations? It's a scam

The department has learnt that many HGs get paid even though they are not reporting to duty

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Wonder why there are less Home Guard volunteers at railway stations? A shocking scam has come to light within the state Home Guards (HG) department. The department has learnt that many HGs get paid even though they are not reporting to duty. It has recently registered a First Information Report (FIR) against its own man, an HG volunteer, on the charge of cheating.

Moreover, HGs are deployed in large numbers at railway stations to assist Government Railway Police (GRP) to ensure law and order and safety of commuters. However, the issue has raised serious concerns of commuter safety, said an official from the HG department.

The FIR was registered by HG Commandant VB Bhole, 54, at Wadala Railway Police station, after he came across differences between the attendance sheet and work certificate of an HG.

According to the FIR, the department provides HGs to various police stations in the city to assist in maintaining law and order. "The police stations have to maintain the attendance sheet and work certificate of the HGs. These attendance sheet and work certificate details are then submitted to the HG department after which duty allowance of Rs200 is sanctioned by the department for the said HGs for discharging his duty," the FIR states.

The department came across differences in attendance sheets and work certificates of a few HG volunteers, namely Santosh Satpute, Mahesh Katre, Mahadev Koli, Harish Kothmire, Chandrakant Totare and Sudhakar Kharat while they were posted at Wadala Railway Police station in January 2014, the FIR states.

"We asked the GRP to conduct an inquiry into the matter and the inquiry revealed that HG officer Sampat Shelke had connived with another HG volunteer, Meena Panwalkar, and fudged the attendance sheet and work certificates of the above mentioned HG volunteers and showed them working excessively for 26 days. Shelke and Panwalkar made bogus work certificates of these volunteers and claimed their allowances from the HG department," said an official from HG.

The Wadala Railway Police have registered a case under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 465 (forgery), 477A (falsification of accounts) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

The annual government spending on Home Guards is Rs120 crore. There are over 38,000 volunteer Home Guards in the state who are deployed for bundobust during festivals alongside the local police.

"A volunteering Home Guard gets Rs400 per day now. It has come to our notice that in several cases, many of them (volunteers) just sign and leave for their respective jobs. They connive with officials in police stations and the railway police, who issue false work certificates. Commuters, especially women, have often expressed concerns over Home Guards never being present in the trains in late evening hours. The present case only goes to show how safety and security of commuters are compromised and a well-organised scam is being run in connivance with policemen," said another official.

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