Hazaribagh, June 20: It is a proposed change of guard that has raised hackles.

Public sector power giant Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) will soon replace homeguards with private security counterparts to take care of its establishments in Hazaribagh, Barhi and Vishnugarh.

The homeguards, however, are far from pleased.

They have been running from pillar to post to make the authorities change their mind.

“We have been guarding DVC for the past 30 years. How can they remove us in a decision taken in a minute? We have asked senior administrative, police officers and Hazaribagh MP Yashwant Sinha to help us,” said S. Pandey, president of homeguards’ district association.

DVC director in Hazaribagh S.B. Singh refused to divulge much and said they had not received any communication from the Calcutta office so far.

Pandey, on the other hand, charged officials with keeping facts under wraps. “I have information that a private agency was hired to guard DVC establishments. The contract worth Rs 67 lakh was awarded to an agency,” he added.

Pandey said at present, DVC was paying Rs 5,300 a month to each of the 300 homeguards. But by engaging a private agency, they would have to pay only Rs 3,000 per head. “This financial factor may have prompted the decision to replace us,” he added.

Senior DVC officer and secretary of DVC officer’s forum Sanjay Singh confirmed that the management wanted to replace homeguards with private security guards. He said that in the first phase, 25 homeguards guarding the grid operation and maintenance division building would be replaced, but could not specify a date.

He justified the replacement, citing homeguards lacked the skill to guard key establishments such as DVC. “Homeguards neither have the calibre nor are properly equipped. In this situation, deploying private security guards is the best option,” Sanjay Singh added.

But Pandey said the charges of inefficiency were baseless and they had received no complaints in their three decades of service at DVC. “We came to the conclusion that only Yashwant Sinha can bail us out of this problem. So we have requested his intervention,” he added.

Anil Sinha, the veteran BJP leader’s spokesperson, confirmed that representatives of homeguards had met the leader in Hazaribagh last week.

He said that Sinha had assured them of taking up this matter with DVC authorities in Calcutta.