SSB volunteers raise job demand

These men and women were trained as guerilla fighters to serve for the country. But most of them work as labourers to make ends meet.

Amid reports that Centre may revive the Special Service Bureau (SSB), the forerunner of the Sashastra Seema Bal, the former volunteers of the now defunct force are demanding that the Rajasthan government provide them jobs and pension.

The SSB volunteers would stage a protest in Jaipur Thursday to press for their demands --the move coming a month after the Ministry of Home Affairs reportedly intimated them that their services would be utilized by the respective state governments.

The former volunteers claim that the SSB had assured them of recruitment in the armed forces but it went back on its promise after being redefined as a border guarding force along the Indo-Nepal border. The SSB was renamed Sashatra Seema Bal in 2001.

“We have been demanding jobs and pension for past several years. In December last year, we also staged a protest in Delhi where one of our fellow volunteers died in police lathicharge. Last month, we received letters from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stating that it has taken up the issue of utilisation of our services with the state governments,” said Harjinder Singh, a former SSB volunteer from Sri Ganganagar.

Singh, who was trained in the year 2000 by seasoned commandos of the SSB in guerrilla warfare in Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir, said that the letter was a result of a year-long verification process of the volunteers.

The MHA letter also states that the details of the volunteers have been sent to the respective state governments as a follow up action.

“These men and women were trained as guerilla fighters to serve for the country. But most of them now work as daily wage labourers to make ends meet. The MHA letter has given us a hope,” said Singh.

Rajendra Godara, another former SSB volunteer from Anoopgarh in Sri Ganganagar, said, “If former SSB volunteers can get jobs in states such as Manipur, then why are we deprived? In the past too we had received assurances after which nothing happened. After this letter, we are going to Jaipur to assert our demands and to request the government to pay heed to the MHA instructions.”

The SSB was constituted in 1963 to act as a line of defence on border by recruiting local foot soldiers who were to serve as the eyes and ears of the security forces. The SSB played an important role in gathering intelligence along the border.