Falling short of required budget to pay honorarium to home guards as per the directive of the Supreme Court, the Uttar Pradesh Police, on the direction of the Chief Secretary, is discontinuing the services of about 25,000 home guards.
The move has come as a major setback for the home guard personnel especially when the government has announced bonus for 14 lakh state employees as a Diwali gift. The state government is already facing criticism over lack of job opportunities in the state.
The order to remove the home guards was taken last week citing budgetary constraints. With this decision, the strength of home guards deployed for law and order duties would be cut by 32 per cent.
Besides, more than 99,000 home guards also stand to lose regular employment, as the state government has cut the number of days they are required to report on duty from 25 to 15 days.
Earlier, around 40,000 home guards had lost their jobs as the police department refused to take their services.
The Supreme Court was earlier moved to seek equality in daily allowance of UP home guard and UP Police constable.
As per the government order dated October 11, the decision to end the services of 25,000 home guards was taken in a meeting headed by the Chief Secretary on August 28.
The Home department had deployed 25,000 home guards around a year back to fill up the vacancies in the police force. 
The order was issued by Additional Director General of Police, Headquarters, BP Jogdand giving reference to the August 28 meeting.
“There is a certain budget for home guards and when their daily allowance is increased, it will definitely have an effect on their duty days. It might have some effect as Diwali season is around the corner. However, I am sure the state government has taken a decision after thinking over the financial constraints. If home guards are given allowances at par with constables then they should also be trained like them,” former DGP of UP, AK Jain, reacted here on Tuesday.
The home guards earlier received daily allowance of around Rs 500, which was raised to Rs 672 following the Supreme Court order. This is said to have added to UP Police’s budgetary constraints.
The home guards do not have any fixed monthly salary and are paid on the basis of number of days of duty. Till now a home guard was deployed on duty for 25 days. The government has now decreased this to 15 days.