Imphal | February 14 : Alleging that they have been ignored for long by the state government, the Special Police Officers (SPOs) (armed villagers) of Heirok in Manipur's Thoubal district have threatened to withdraw their status as SPOs and instead form another independent organisation to safeguard their village.
This comes even as the central government has directed the government of Manipur for recruiting more SPOs in the state.
While informing this during a press conference held on Friday at the Manipur Press Club in Imphal the group commander of the SPO C-Company, Thokchom Romen, revealed that SPOs are morally down following the apathy of the state government. Inspite of many revolts from time to time by the SPOs demanding their rights, including submitting a memorandum to the Union home minister, the government is still silent, rued Romen and informed that one of the 300 SPOs has joint the Army.
He pointed out that the SPOs were confined at the Pangei training centre even after their training duration was over following which the SPOs resorted to hunger strike. They were later transferred to Heirok with the assurance of providing necessary requirements including setting up of separate barrack and regular duty, however till date no necessary requirement are met, except salary and reporting at the attached security post, asserted Romen.
The commander of the SPO C-Company also informed that the step of the government to convert the SPOs into Village Defence Force (VDF) will not be accepted and added that all if government fails to intervene immediately to address the grievances of the SPOs they will form a separate independent organization to protect the village of Heirok.
Following the direction of the central government a state cabinet meeting in January has also approved for recruitment of 10,350 SPOs and the recruitment process will be started on February 15.
It is worth mentioning that SPOs were established by the state government recently following the arms demands made by the villagers of Heirok and other localities in the Manipur valley to defend and protect themseles from certain quarters.
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