StatesHaryana
Saini raises Haryana village watchmen's pay to ₹15,221, asks Rahul Gandhi to apologise for 'chowkidar chor hai'
The Chief Minister announced a 38% rise in the monthly honorarium for 5,201 rural chowkidars at a felicitation event in Panchkula, and used the stage to revive the Congress leader's old slogan.
Key points
- Haryana's rural chowkidars will get ₹15,221 a month, up from ₹11,000.
- The 5,201 watchmen get ESI and labour welfare cover for the first time.
- Nayab Singh Saini demanded that Rahul Gandhi apologise to village watchmen.
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Friday raised the monthly honorarium of the state’s rural chowkidars to ₹15,221 from ₹11,000, a rise of 38 per cent, and turned the same stage into an attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The announcement came at the state-level Rural Chowkidar Samman Samaroh in Panchkula, held to honour the village watchmen. The raise covers 5,201 chowkidars across the state. For the first time, they will also be brought under Employees’ State Insurance and labour welfare schemes, and their uniform, bicycle and other allowances will go up.
The government said the decisions take effect immediately and will add roughly ₹27 crore a year to the state’s spending.
Saini then brought back the “chowkidar chor hai” slogan that Gandhi used against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and demanded that he apologise publicly for what he called an insult to the men who guard villages. Chowkidars protect villages and public property, he said, often working through the night in hard conditions, and the slogan showed disrespect for them.
The Chief Minister also questioned whether Gandhi had the standing to make charges of corruption, pointing to the big scandals of the Congress years in power at the Centre.
For the watchmen, the gain is immediate: the higher honorarium and the new insurance cover apply from now on.