Centre assumes responsibility for J&K Police budget, allocates ₹12,000 crore

SRINAGAR — In a significant development, the Union government has taken over the budget of Jammu & Kashmir Police from the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

As per the news agency KNO, in her J&K’s budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Union government has agreed to take the entire budget of the police from the Union Territory of J&K.

“It is observed that around 11% of the budget of Jammu and Kashmir is used for police. Such expenses on policing being unavoidable, leave 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 police from the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.

With this announcement, J&K Police’s budget would no longer be part of J&K’s budget and would be part of the Union budget.

She said that 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.

This is for the first time after the reorganization of J&K that J&K Police’s budget has become part of the Union government’s budget.

Under the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, police would be under direct control of the Central government as the J&K Legislative Assembly has no powers to make laws on “police” and “public order”.