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| Where have security related Rs 7000 cr gone? | | Govt asked to make expenditure public voluntarily | | Peerzada Ummer
Early Times Report
srinagar, Dec 16: Despite Governor NN Vohra's intervention earlier this year asking the Deputy Commissioners to make Security Related Expenditure (SRE) released by the union Home Ministry to the State, no action has been taken so far into the issue.
Sources informed that the Government has received series of complaints about the alleged misappropriation of the funds provided to J&K under Security Related Expenditure (SRE) and Relief and Rehabilitation (RR). The complaints have been made about some officials in the State Government who have misused these funds, otherwise meant to provide relief to the people affected by the violence after the onset of militancy in the State.
Meanwhile reports said that even after the enactment of Right to Information Act (RTI), public authorities especially those who have been direct beneficiaries of these funds in the name of peace and security have been reluctant to make its voluntary disclosure vis-a-vis its utilization. So far, it has been kept as a secret by various State officials about the utilization of these funds. The expenditure has not been made public with the civil society groups in the State crying foul over such official apathy.
The secrecy being kept about the utilization of these funds coming from the Union Government is not only proving the slogans of transparency as hollow and unfulfilled but is also making the notion to saunter that corruption enjoys patronage in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
One of the senior Government officials told Early Times that the Government in the past has been intimated by scores of civil society groups about the alleged misuse of these funds and had pitched to make the expenditure public but so far there has been no action taken over the repeated pleas.
According to the recent report of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) around Rs 7300 crore have been released in favor of J&K Government from 1990 onwards under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE). Governor of J&K N N Vohra also took this matter seriously when State was put under Governor's rule in January this year, but except few Deputy Commissioners the utilization of these funds has not been voluntarily made public.
On October 24, this year, Early Times was the first newspaper to report that since the onset of militancy in Kashmir in 1989, the Government of India (GoI) has reimbursed more than Rs 7,000 crore to J&K Government under the security related expenditure.
A document released by the Union Home Ministry had revealed that apart from the expenditure incurred upon the deployment of army and paramilitary troops in Kashmir, the J&K Government has received Rs 7207 crore so far by the Union Home Ministry.
During the current financial year, a sum of Rs 447 crore has been reimbursed by the Centre to the State to fight insurgency.
The document reads that in view of the militancy, the Government of J&K has to incur more expenditure to maintain 'peace and tranquility'.
"It has led to the additional burden on its budget. In order to mitigate this problem and with a view to augment the resources of J&K to fight terrorism and contain militancy besides maintaining law and order in the State, a separate SRE scheme for J&K was introduced," reads the document.
The scheme has been bifurcated into two parts. One provides for the reimbursement of the expenditure on police which mainly spends the logistical requirements of the police force. The other is for the relief and rehabilitation of the migrant Kashmiri Pandits who had to flee from the Valley during the early militancy period.
The document says that since the inception of the militancy, the Centre has released Rs 4735.51 crore for police while Rs 2472.45 crore have been given for rehabilitation of the Pandits. |
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