Jaipur, July 25 -- The state government has amended the Police Rules to allow workers of political parties to join the Community Liaisoning Group (CLG), which helps the state to gather intelligence and maintain public order. The state home department, through a July 19 amendment, removed a clause prohibiting a person who was "a member of a political party or its affiliate" from being inducted into CLGs. The CLG consists of prominent citizens, educators, businessmen, and community leaders who help police by sharing intelligence, and resolving small neighbourhood disputes. CLG members have voluntary roles and are not paid for their work. Joint secretary (home) Maneesh Goyal, who issued the notification, did not respond to HT's queries for comment till late on Friday. Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi criticised the move. "If political workers are brought in , the purpose of the CLG will be diluted. Civil society, social workers who enjoy goodwill among people should be kept," he said. He alleged that the BJP and RSS were trying to infiltrate institutions, and thus hindering their functioning. BJP's Pankaj Meena defended the amendment. "CLG should have members who have a good rapport with the community. Political workers are the ones who are most in touch with people and are there to serve people. So why should political workers be untouchables," he said. Government data shows that there are 75,265 CLG members in Rajasthan. These include CLG members at the police station, beat, panchayat, and ward levels. As per the rules, a person is ineligible to join a CLG if he is convicted by a court, if he has a criminal case against him, if he is suspected to be involved in any criminal activity, has association with criminals or if is involved in a property dispute. To be sure, CLG members are appointed by the district superintendent of police on the recommendation of the officer in-charge of the concerned police station as well as the circle officer. The rules state that for a person to be inducted as a CLG member, he should have a good moral bearing and be a respectable citizen. Only local residents of a panchayat or police station jurisdiction can be inducted as CLG members. CLGs have members from all sections of the society with two women representatives as well as two from SC/ST backgrounds. At the panchayat level, CLGs have five members while at the police station, there are 30 members....