CM honours civil defence and home guard officers on Raising Day Parade
By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 6 Dec: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami received the guard of honour at the grand ceremonial parade organised on the foundation day of Home Guards and Civil Defence Organisation, here today. A total of 6 platoons participated in the ceremonial parade, consisting of 5 armed men platoon and 1 armed women platoon. Home guards from various districts of Garhwal and Kumaon divisions participated in the parade. Nirmal Joshi, District Commandant, Rudraprayag was the Parade Commander, while Nitin Kakerwal, District Commandant, Almora was the Second in Command and Babita Rawat, Paid Platoon Commander, District Training Centre, Srinagar was the Parade Adjutant. Chandrakant Bisht, Paid Inspector, Haridwar and Chetan Maithani, Paid Platoon Commander, Udham Singh Nagar were the Company Commanders, while Mukul Rathi, Block Organiser, Udham Singh Nagar, was the Parade Major.
Lalit Mohan Joshi, Divisional Commandant, Home Guards, Kumaon Division, was awarded the President’s Home Guard Medal for meritorious work (this was announced on Republic Day-2021) by the Chief Minister. In addition, several officers and personnel of Home Guards and Civil Defence Department were also honoured with a certificate of appreciation for their work by the CM. Those honoured were Nirmal Joshi, District Commandant, Rudraprayag; Nitin Kakerwal, District Commandant, Almora; Mohammed Arshad, Block Organiser, District Dehradun; Kavi, Block Organiser, District Udham Singh Nagar; Home Guard Prakash Chandra Bahuguna, District Dehradun and Home Guard Bhanu Prakash Rana, District Dehradun.
On this occasion, several announcements were also made by CM Dhami in respect of the Home Guards and Civil Defence Department. They included, recruitment of one female platoon of Home Guard volunteers (numbering 330 personnel) for each of the ten districts namely Udham Singh Nagar, Pithoragarh, Champawat, Almora, Bageshwar, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Pauri, Uttarkashi and Tehri. It was further announced that food allowance of Rs 180- per day would be paid to Home Guards volunteers who are posted in inter-district duty in Uttarakhand state and in election duty and ceremonial parades within the state limits. 
Provision of duty allowance for a maximum of 6 months (during the entire service period) to Home Guards volunteers who get injured/sick within 24 hours of their duty and are admitted to the hospital was also announced.The CM also announced increase in Honorarium from Rs 1000 to Rs 1,500 per day for unpaid platoon commanders and from Rs 1200 to Rs 2,000 per month to unpaid assistant company commanders and increase from Rs 1500 per month to Rs 2,500 per month to unpaid company commanders.
On this occasion, the Chief Minister gave an assistance amount of Rs 2 lakhs to Preeti, the dependent wife of Home Guard Late Tilak Raj Maurya and Rs one lakh to retired Home Guard Kunti Negi from the Welfare Fund.
On the occasion of Raising Day Parade-2022, the CM also inaugurated the ‘Pahal’ app for physical and mental well-being of home guards. He said that the life of Home Guards is full of physical and mental challenges, so the health of his mind and brain is as important as his physical health. In order to give a physical shape to this concept, a new initiative has been taken on the occasion of Raising Day Parade-2022.
On the occasion, the departmental magazine, Smarika 2022, of the Home Guards and Civil Defence Department was also launched by the CM. Pushkar Singh Dhami on this occasion also praised Commandant General Home Guards and Director, Civil Defence, Uttarakhand Kewal Khurana, IPS for the work being done by the department under his leadership.
He said that if a unique example of service to the nation could be clearly seen anywhere, then it was seen amongst the jawans. He said that the courage, skill and balance displayed by the jawans on motorbikes in the parade was commendable. He added that Home Guards and Civil Defence also had an important contribution in smooth functioning of law and order in the state. The Chief Minister said that the State Government was ready to provide all kinds of cooperation to the Home Guards personnel. For SLR of Home Guards jawans ten thousand cartridges have been purchased for training. The state government has also given approval for the purchase of small arms like pistols for the convenience of these jawans.
On this occasion Mayor Dehradun Sunil Uniyal Gama, Mayor Rishikesh Anita Mamgai, MLAs Umesh Sharma Kau, Khajan Das and Pramod Nainwal, Director General of Police Ashok Kumar, Commandant General Home Guard and Civil Defence Kewal Khurana, Deputy Commandant General Home Guard Amitabh Srivastava, Rajeev Baloni and other dignitaries were present.
