Mubashir Alam
Srinagar, Oct 24: The Government of India has revealed that the proposal of separate budget provisions for Jammu & Kashmir Police is in consonance with the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act-2019.
In response to an application filed under the Right to Information Act-2019, the Union Home Ministry has disclosed that the proposal of separate budget provisions for Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) is in consonance with Section 32 of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
Under section 32 of The Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the Legislative Assembly can legislate on all matters in the State List except “public order” and “police”. Both these subjects fall under the purview of the Central Government.
For the first time after reorganization of J&K, J&K Police’s budget for the ongoing financial year figured in the grants of the Ministry of the Home Affairs (MHA) in the Union Budget unveiled by Nirmala Sitharaman.
Even after bifurcation of J&K into two UTs, J&K Police’s allocations were part of the Union Territory’s own budget.
It is worthwhile to mention that Union Finance Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in July 2024 that the Centre has agreed to take the entire budget of J&K Police from UT. “It is observed that around 11% of the budget of Jammu and Kashmir is used for the 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 the budget of the police from the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” she had said.
