Village Defence Committees active in many states : Jaiswal

New Delhi, Mar 7 (UNI) States affected by terrorism, insurgency and naxalism will be encouraged by the Centre to promote local defence committees and village defence committees to assist the police, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Minister of State for HOme Sriprakash Jaiswal said, in reply to written questions, that village defence groups were active in states such as Asom, Nagaland and Jammu and Kashmir.

He said there were 11,298 village defence parties in Asom.

In Nagaland, the number of village guards was 8232. The number of Village Defence Committees in Jammu and Kashmir was 3742.

The members of these committees were local volunteers, Mr Jaiswal said.

UNI