The Eastern Naga Students’ Federation (ENSF) has submitted a representation to the Chief Secretary of Nagaland, urging the government to exclude Village Guards (VGs) from the ongoing State Employment Census.
In its letter, the federation stated that the inclusion of VGs—particularly from Eastern Nagaland—under the category of state government employees in the PIMS (Personal Information Management System) database is “unjust and an act of manipulation.”
While acknowledging that Village Guards may have PIMS entries “for administrative purposes,” the ENSF argued that they “are neither employed nor remunerated by the State Government.” The federation emphasized that the VGs “have a unique and distinct identity with specific duties, which are primarily honorary and voluntary in nature,” and further noted that they are “governed by separate rules and regulations distinct from that of regular State government employees.”
The federation pointed out that the honorarium of the Village Guards is funded by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, and not from the state exchequer.
Highlighting the importance of accurate data, ENSF said that the purpose of an employment census is to “ascertain the actual manpower burden on the State exchequer and to evaluate the scope of employment creation within the state machinery.” Therefore, the inclusion of VGs—who are not on the state payroll—could result in “distorted and inflated statistical representation potentially jeopardising resource allocation, job policy framing and public employment planning.”
ENSF concluded the representation by urging the state government to take “immediate corrective measures to omit VGs from the employment census database calculated based on PIMS,” and to ensure that the census “reflects only those employees who are directly salaried from the State.”
The letter was signed by Nuheymong Yimkhiung, President, and James Konyak, Secretary General of ENSF.
