The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Home Guards aggrieved

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 17, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Home Guards aggrieved

By Our Special Correspondent

CUDDALORE, JAN. 16. Home Guards feel aggrieved that their services are either underutilised or unutilised in giving relief to the tsunami-affected people. It is alleged that by not rising to the occasion, the Area Commanders of Home Guards have failed to utilise the human resource readily available at their command.

Therefore, even though the Home Guards are trained in all kinds of rescue operations, they could not be much of use, because the feel their "hands are tied." Since the Home Guards are a disciplined force, they could only carry out a command and could not act on their own, as in the case of police and military personnel.

It is learnt that there are 12,000-strong Home Guards in Tamil Nadu and of them over 3,000 have undergone advanced "civil defence training" imparted at various centres such as Nagpur, Bangalore and Uthagamandalam.

These Home Guards have completed various courses in rescue, watermenship and first aid that would stand them in good stead to deal with any exigency. Be it drowning persons, or those caught in an inferno, they could reach the victims and bail them out with ease.

They are conversant with "fire-man's lift" (for carrying the burn victims or those who got suffocated by fumes and so on), rope climbing (to climb multi-storeyed buildings), carrying the injured down the ladder, giving first aid to road accident victims and so on.

The Home Guards too have diligently mastered these skills and have got State-level awards too. And yet, all their training has come to naught, because the authorities have not issued the "special call outs" to render service in the seismic wave-affected areas.

Certain representatives of Home Guards whom this correspondent met here today deplored the complacency of the higher-ups. When a calamity of such vast magnitude occurred, the Home Guards were kept on the sidelines, and not actively involved in the relief and rehabilitation works. They felt offended by the callous attitude of the officials and felt neglected.

Some of them helped the people in their personal capacity. If they had been deployed officially as a uniformed force, they would have served well.

Temple duty

When contacted, the Area Commander of Cuddalore, P. Rajendran, said since December 26 happened to be Arudhra Darshan day, 300 (out of 400 in Cuddalore) Home Guards were posted at Chidamabaram Natarajar Temple for regulating the devotees.

However, he had withdrawn a section of them and sent them to Pudukuppam and Samiarpettai and helped in the funeral of the tsunami victims and he too personally visited, along with police officers, other affected areas.

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