Security ‘misuse’

A review of the entire gamut of providing personal security was long overdue in Jammu and Kashmir State and for reasons extraneous to the very purpose on cogent and adequately reasonable grounds, the same was treated as “touch me not” by the State Governments so far but had finally to be done by the Governor’s administration which , at the outset, must deserve kudos . Not only was the unnecessary deployment of the security personnel to those ‘beneficiaries’ completely untenable but it was a drain on the public exchequer and it is really rue-able that hardly have the successive State Governments been business like in computing, assessing and employing cost analysis in most of the issues where it should and in the instant case, which parks at nothing less than mis- utilization of services of the personnel of Jammu and Kashmir Police and the ‘sarkari’ vehicles, the extent of drain on state exchequer has never been reckoned. Each service engaged by the State Government is paid by it with the public money and the same must be recovered, at least in principal, from those who hire them or requisition to be put at their disposal. These are some politicians , retired and serving bureaucrats and uncategorized persons who have been brazenly “enjoying” such security and the vehicles more for a status symbol rather than for addressing any threat perception.
Coming to the point straight , in an exercise of its first kind, Jammu and Kashmir Police has withdrawn about 850 Personal Security Officers (PSOs) and 160 ‘Sarkari’ vehicles costly fuel driven of course, from undeserving politicians, retired and serving bureaucrats and persons of ‘uncategorized’ category as the deployment was found to be on extremely unjustifiable grounds. There were voices raised in the issue under reference from various quarters on the grounds of eligibility, propriety as well as on convincing and pressing grounds as the public eye cannot be hazed which has been helplessly but indignantly watching misusing of the costly facility especially the vehicles being used for personal and family use and even misusing the security personnel by getting household chores done by them or “redeploying” them by the “protected” for keeping watch and ward of their properties etc.
Some sort of preparations though in hush hush manner about regulating and reviewing the entire issue, it is learnt, had started actively taking place six months back between concerned officials but could not fructify into taking a decision in this regard. Union Home Ministry which provides huge financial assistance to Jammu and Kashmir Police under Security Related Expenditure (SRE) head had been interested in ascertaining whether funds were utilized strictly for the intended objectives. An exercise was conducted wherein it surfaced that in large number of cases, rules were not only not followed but even grossly violated and therefore large number of PSOs and vehicles were mis-deployed.
Violations and gross misuse of the facilities were in the form of more deployment than the entitlement, even Police vehicles in number of cases were not put to use but the petrol, oil and lubricants were being obtained and used in personal vehicles. Enjoying political patronage has been the force and the support base of these beneficiaries but at the expense of the common peoples’ hard earned money vis-à-vis taxes. It can happen only under the bogey of “militancy and threat perception” reveals the honesty of purpose and no response to the voice of inner conscience of both the ‘recipients’ as well as the politicians under whose pressure this all has been allowed to be continued. Every Rupee spent by the Government and its agencies must be accounted for, audited and end use ascertained to restore more confidence of the people in the administrative system as they want probity and more transparency in political cum governing system.

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