Imphal: One of Manipur’s vital security agencies, the Village Defence Force, VDF, has threatened to quit their job unless their service is duly extended and their pending allowances for two months cleared off. After it’s instituted in 2009 to combat militancy, the VDF has become a backbone of Manipur police, discharging a wide range of duties for the maintenance of law & order in the restive state.

Currently a VDF personnel, whose service is renewed annual, draws a monthly salary of Rs 6,000/-, doubled the amount they used to get when they first used started.

Briefing the media at the Manipur Press Club on Thursday, general secretary of the All Manipur Village Defence Force Welfare Association, Md. Riyash Khan said, “our service is valid for only a year which is extended every year by the government. However the mandatory service extension for the current year had been kept in abeyance, prompting us to voice our concerns.”

The welfare association also said that d-ul filter is a special festival celebrated by the Muslim community with much fervour. The association’s spokesperson insisted that the government notify the extension order and clear their due allowance as a gift of the festival, failing which they threatened to quit their job.

Officially there are around 10,050 VDF personnel in all the 16 districts of the state. Because of the nature of their contractual service, the VDF personnel have had to protest delays in payments, failing of contractual agreements and regularizing their service.

Towards their regularization, the association had been pleading for concerns like accelerating the process of inclusion in the Manipur Government Employees List (MGEL) and Centralised Personnel Information System (CPIS). Of late the association had been arguing that a separate IRB battalion be established for them.