Make villages crime free, CM Sarbananda Sonowal tells VDP

GAURISAGAR: Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has urged Village Defence Party (VDP) volunteers to dedicatedly work for making villages safe and crime free. The Chief Minister assured VDP members of increasing their remuneration.

Sonowal attended the 72nd foundation day programme of the Village Defence Organisation as the chief guest on Talatal Ghar premises in Sivasagar.

Sonowal called on the VDP volunteers to work for foiling all evil designs of anti-social elements to disturb the peace and harmony in the villages while striving for Gandhiji's ideals of Ram Rajya through maintenance of cleanliness in villages. He also informed that the State Government was considering to increase the incentive of VDPs from the present amount of Rs 2500 while directing the DG of Assam Police to take steps for erecting a statue of VDP's founder Harinarayan Barua at Guwahati.

He referred to Mahatma Gandhi's remark that 'The soul of India lives in its villages' and said that the rural areas, where 84 per cent of the country's population reside, must be developed to make India stronger. Efforts must be made by all stakeholders to develop the 26,000 villages through the increase of agricultural production in Assam and humanistic values must be inculcated among the younger generation, he said.

Minister of State for Revenue and Disaster Department Jogen Mohan, Jorhat MP Topon Gogoi, DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta also spoke in the programme.