Budget 2024: Centre Takes Away ‘Burden’ Of J&K Police Funding From Local Govt, Grants Rs 9,789 Crore

Just like the Delhi Police, the Jammu and Kashmir Police will also receive funds to meet its administrative expenditures from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Earlier, the local government would hand out funds to the J&K police.

The Union government has earmarked Rs 9,789 crore for the J&K police for administrative purposes. The J&K police is also responsible for maintaining and enforcing law and order and traffic management in the region.

In her budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “It is observed that around 11% of budget of Jammu and Kashmir is used for police. Such expenses on policing being unavoidable, leaves limited space for spending on development and welfare projects. I am happy to inform this August House that the Union Government has agreed to take the entire burden of budget of police from Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Central government will now provide for the salary, pension and other costs of Jammu and Kashmir Police for which an allocation of Rs 12,000 crore has been made in the annual budget.”

The government has expanded the coverage of “Ladli Beti” from 16,095 cases in 2017 to 1,61,552 cases in 2023-24. The financial assistance for deserving girl children has been increased from Rs 24 crore to Rs 847 crore during the said period. Under the marriage assistance scheme, 1,04,326 poor girls were provided financial aid of Rs 394 crore from 2015-16 to 2023-24.

For school and higher education sector, an allocation of Rs 1,284.47 crore has been made under capital expenditure for the year 2024-25 which is Rs 185.69 crore more than the revised allocation of 2023-24.

For Relief and Rehabilitation of Kashmir Migrants, Rs 1,044.92 crore has been granted under the revenue and capital expenditure, which is Rs 134.70 crore more than the revised allocation of 2023-24.

On terrorism, Sitharaman said, “While fighting terrorism, the government has also focused on improving overall law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The defining characteristic of the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir which has a direct bearing on day-to-day life of common citizens is ‘street violence’ which was a methodical and regular phenomenon pre-2019. The street violence, engineered and orchestrated by terrorists and secessionist networks is now a thing of past. Students are happy as there are no more school closures, businessmen are happy as there are no more bandhs and hartals, youngsters are happy as peace is bringing lots of economic opportunities.”