Shillong, Jan 15: Minister in-charge Civil Defence and Homeguards Brolding Nongsiej on Friday assured that very soon funds will be sanctioned for releasing the pending salaries of the Home Guard volunteers.

“Our department is also taking up the matter and the funds will be released hopefully by the end of this month,” Nongsiej told reporters.

When asked, the minister said the department has deployed over 112 home guard volunteers for COVID-19 duty as requested by the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Jowai, West Jaintia Hills District.

“We are only providing the manpower but regarding the salary, the funds are being sanctioned by the DC to our department for release to the home guard volunteers,” he said adding “therefore, we are waiting for the sanction so that we can release it to them.”

When asked the reason for the delay, Nongseij said because it is a central scheme. He however said the DC and the Disaster Management department are also taking up the matter very seriously to ensure the early release of the funds.

“Once the DC releases the funds, our department will have no reason to delay releasing the same to the volunteers,” he said.

According to him, the home guard volunteers have been working without salaries for the past many months and this had even compelled them to stage protests.