Whenever a disaster wrecks havoc their services are sought and they perform with all sincerity. Be it Phailin, Hudhud and Titli, or any other such disasters, whenever their services were required they came to the forefront and served the people.
They are civil defence volunteers, who have been honored with President Medals for their outstanding contribution to the society. For exemplary performance, these volunteers have been given Certificate of Appreciation continuously in 2016, 2017 and 2018 by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for their outstanding contribution in disaster management in Odisha. However, a sad part of the story is the present rate of duty call allowances is Rs 28 per day!
Duty call allowance is given when a volunteer is called for help during emergency or for any rehearsal at any time or when he undergoes training. The civil defence volunteers are roped in from the society not for anything but to serve the people. These volunteers are also generating awareness among the people and sensitizing the children and common men.
While they are serving a noble cause, allowance is given to them is highly undignified, admit officials. The civil defence in Odisha is working in several districts, especially in multi-hazard prone districts. These organizations are in 11 districts of the State, which are rendering various types of services during natural disasters regularly. The civil defence organizations are present in districts like Khurda, Koraput, Sundargarh, Angul, Baleswar, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam and Puri and are under control of DG Fire Services, Home Guards and Director General Civil Defence.
These are the most vulnerable districts so far as multi hazards are concerned and the civil defence volunteers are serving the people in crisis with all sincerity. The Director General Civil Defence BK Sharma has time and again harped on increasing their daily allowances.
Accordingly the State Government has urged to increase duty call allowance of the volunteers as the payments are not revised for last three decades. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sanctions the daily allowances and the State Government has approached the Union Government to enhance the DA to at least Rs 300 per day.