Govt assessing demands of protesting General Ansar members

The government is assessing the demands put forward by General Ansar members with compassion and carefully, said a circular issued by the public security division of the Home Ministry.
It also decided not to recruit any new members to the force till further notice.
A committee headed by the Director General (DG) of the Ansar and VDP has been formed to assess their demands and it has been asked to submit a report to the government within seven working days. The committee will incorporate representatives of the General Ansar members, said the notification.
Upon receiving a report from the committee, an inter-ministerial committee will examine the recommendations. Then they will devise an implementation plan and submit their findings to the government for subsequent action.
The circular also asked the Ansar members to return to their respective workplaces and resume work.
The General Ansar members are protesting putting forward several demands including job nationalisation after the fall of the Awami League government on August 5 following a student movement.
There are three branches of Ansar; the General Ansar, the Battalion Ansar, and the Village Defence Party (VDP).
“Presently, there are around 99,000 general Ansar members in the force. 55,000 of them are on duty and 15,000 are on leave,” Md Rubel Hossain, Assistant Director of the Ansar and VDP told The Daily Star.
He said that some 29,000 other Ansar members are either blacklisted for security issues or blocked for not responding to calls to join duty.
Besides, there are around 17,000 regular members in the force called the Battalion Ansar. The force has also around 57 lakh VDP members, whose jobs are volunteer-based, he said.
Stating that a handful of provocateurs are trying to create chaos in the disciplinary force, the notification warned of taking legal actions, if necessary, against the trouble makers.
“No one should do anything that tarnishes the reputation and image of this traditionally disciplined force,” reads the circular.
According to Ansar and VDP headquarters, a person has to take 90 days of training before qualifying as a member of the General Ansar.
THREE YEAR TENURE
On average, the Ansar and VDP headquarters receive a deployment requisition for 55,000 for different institutes or government offices around the year, said Rubel Hossain.
The office for which Ansars are deployed pays the salary of the deployed members.
A member who wants to be deployed at various institutions for security and other purposes, has to make a contact with the Ansar headquarters for three years.
“After the three-year tenure, the members are sent on leave or rest for six months, before renewing the contract again,” said Rubel.
An Ansar high official told this newspaper that it would be difficult to nationalise the members of the General Ansar over the payment issue.
As these members mainly work for security at different private and government offices and the salary is also paid by the concerned offices, it is not clear how the salary issue will be settled.
“If their jobs are nationalised, and they get salary from the government, then what will be the conditions for these deployments?” the official asked, requesting anonymity.