The Civil Defence Force (CDF), formerly known as ‘Home Guards’ will be streamlined following reports that some of the personnel were performing duties outside their given mandate, a top official said yesterday. The CDF which has a strength of 33,877 people which includes 28,900 males and the rest females was initially set up to guard border villages in the North and the East against the Tigers during the height of the terrorist conflict.
However, it has been found that a large number of errant CDF personnel are engaged in work outside their given mandate and, therefore, a thorough vetting has to be carried out at the earliest, the official said.
CDF personnel are mostly assigned for duties at public functions, guarding fences along the elephant corridors, involved in environment cleaning programs and at events in rural areas and elsewhere while some are with the police.
The official said that at the end of the day the services of a sizeable number of CDF personnel would have to be withdrawn depending on service requirements and other related issues.
State Minister of Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon has directed the military to look into the matter at the very earliest and to take decisions.
The present average monthly salary of a CDF personnel is around Rs. 42,710.
During the immediate post-war period there were moves to incorporate the CDF personnel into the police but such moves never materialised.
Discipline among the CDF rank and file is also another issue that will be seriously addressed, the official said.
It was only recently that a drunken CDF official was alleged to have shot a temple elephant in Thanamalwila in the deep South mistaking it for a wild jumbo.
The elephant which had participated in a local perahera on that day was tethered to a river bank for the night when the incident took place.
The elephant is recovering from the buckshot wounds it had received and is currently undergoing treatment at the animal care centre in Peradeniya.
CDF personnel with local police stations are provided with firearms only with the approval of the Officer-in-Charge.
