Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Apr 11: Though Union Home Ministry had assured Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah to clear all pending issues at the earliest, there has been virtually no response to proposals submitted by the State several months earlier pertaining to the security scenario in the State.
“Though these proposals had been discussed at various levels between the State Government and officials of the Union Home Ministry, there had been no forward movement on the subject”, sources said adding, “pending proposals included reimbursement of deployment charges for various security forces in the border State, release of funds for upgradation of Police Training Institutes, sanction for additional Special Police Officers (SPOs) and enhancement of honorarium in favour of SPOs”.
Elaborating on the proposals, sources said, “beyond March, 2009 the Union Home Ministry has imposed cost of deployment on account of security forces including Rapid Action Force (RAF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Indo – Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) across the State”, adding, “this Security Related Expenditure (SRE) had touched nearly Rs 600 crore till now and the State isn’t in a position to pay these charges”.
“State Home Department officials had pleaded before the Centre that since several districts of the State were still militancy-infested, it should be absolved of these charges. The State needs to be exempted from these deployment charges as was the case till the year 2009”, sources asserted.
Further, sources stated that in January this year, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in his interaction with Union Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde had also sought approval of the detailed proposal submitted by the State Government for approval of SRE for the current financial year as revised estimates for the year 2012-13.
“As part of the Rs 280 crore projects relating to upgradation of police training centres, the State has also demanded additional Rs 50 crores as second installment for the year 2012-13. Even, Rs 30 crore approved by Home Ministry for upgradation of training institutions for the year 2011-12 were also yet to be released”, sources remarked.
Source said, “the State Government had also taken up with the Union Home Ministry a proposal for sanction for deployment of additional 5000 posts of SPOs in Jammu and Kashmir on permanent basis. However, there hasn’t been any response from the Centre”.
“Earlier, the Home Ministry had sanctioned nearly 25,400 posts of these SPOs and most of them have been recruited. However, need was being felt for deployment of additional SPOs in some militancy-prone areas in remote and mountainous belts”, sources remarked.
Presently, these 25,400 SPOs are working in the Police Department out of whom 23,577 are working in different districts and the remaining 1897 are working in other wings of police. SPO including those working with the Village Defence Committees are paid a monthly honorarium of Rs 3000 per month.
“The State Government has also taken up the issue of enhancement of the honorarium of SPOs from existing Rs 3000 to Rs 5000, but there has been no response on this issue so far”, sources asserted.
Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah had in the recently concluded budget session of the Legislative Assembly stated that the Centre had turned down the request of the State Government as there were similar cases in the rest of country.
“The State Government has also formulated a policy for absorption of SPOs as constable with minimum three years of continuous engagement. Till now, about 1852 of them have been absorbed in the Police Department as constables under the existing rehabilitation policy”, source said.
It is pertinent to mention here that SPOs were set up as a frontline security to assist police and security forces in anti-militancy operations and to provide security to people in remote areas in the peak of militancy 15 years back.
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