The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday decided to continue with the services of all home guards personnel who were removed from duty. "In view of the coming festival season, the present arrangement of deployment of home guards will continue as before," a government order issued by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avinesh Awasthi said. Their payment will be made from the budget of the Home Department and till the fund permits, the order said. The order follows an assurance given by state Home Guard Minister Chetan Chauhan that no home guard would be removed. The state government had on October 15 announced that it was doing away with 25,000 home guards as it could not afford the new allowances the Supreme Court had asked it to pay, only to reverse it hours later, saying no one would be removed. After the news reports appeared in the media, the government had clarified that it was trying to find out the solution to the problem so that the Diwali festival was