Does Kashmir benefit from India’s soaring defence
spending?
Army, CRPF, BSF believe it helps local economy,
provides jobs
‘Police hiring policy burdens state exchequer’
Wasim Khalid
Srinagar, Nov 21: Army and paramilitary forces have
emerged as one of the largest employers in Jammu and Kashmir over the years.The
state police has also become one of the main employers. However, the state
exchequer has to incur its burden since police does not generate any
money. Apart from employing more than
5000 people annually in past four years, the annual expenditure of defence
forces (salary excluded) in the state stands at staggering Rs 2400 crore. Apart from recruiting thousands of youth, the
defence exchequer has given rise to a chain of local contractors who are
earning millions of rupees from the accounts. Army employs more than 4000
people in J&K annually. “In Kashmir division, army recruits 1200 persons on
average annually,” army spokesman, Lt Col J S Brar told Rising Kashmir.
A senior army official in Udahmpur
based northern command said 15000 to 17000 porters are employed for various
jobs each year. “They have been employed on annual basis. Majority of them have
been employed in Kashmir region” official said. “In
this way the army is not only sustaining the individuals, but their families
too depend on army for survival.”
The official said army has also raised eight
battalions of Territorial Army since 2004. He said these battalions exclusively
comprise of Kashmiri youth. “We are in
the process of raising more battalions of Territorial Army.” The official
claimed that unemployment was the main driving force for army to recruit people
from Kashmir. “We want to provide relief to the jobless youth of Valley.” In
addition, the official said army is spending Rs 1700 crore annually in Kashmir.
“This money is utilized on various projects like construction works, consumable
items and local purchase and so on. This money gets disbursed in local markets.
Hence, it uplifts the economy of people and state to an extent.”
He said Indian army has kept some
regiments like Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI) specifically for the
people of the state. “The recruitment drive would continue in the coming years
also,” Brar added. The official said participation of thousands of people
during recruitment rallies is testimony that Kashmiris are now taking special
interest to join Indian army. Indian Army employs over 1,325,000 active
personnel and is the world's second largest army after China. Paramilitary CRPF
said it is disbursing about Rs 600 crore annually into the markets of the
state. CRPF spokesman, Sudhir Kumar said
Rs 2000 per month is spent on average on one CRPF personnel’s food alone. “So
it means one battalion (1100 personnel) spends around 22 lakh rupees monthly.”
There are around 65 battalions of
CRPF, majority of them stationed in the valley. “A single battalion spends Rs
4.80 Cr annually on food lone. Now multiply this amount with 65 battalions.
It’s a staggering amount.” “And we purchase all the food from local
contractors. We get things from local business men.” The spokesman said other
than food each battalion of CRPF spends Rs one crore on battalion requirements.
“The expenditure is to the tune of Rs 65 crore. Here we again avail the
services of local people. Other than that Rs 2 crore is spent on cultural and
sports activities organized by us.” Apart from this, CRPF also recruits local
youth. So far, the official said, 11000 Kashmiris from the state, including
women, are serving in the paramilitary force. Between 2005 and 2008, CRPF
recruited 1512 youth from Valley. 640 persons were employed in 2009. In 2011,
the force recruited 500 personnel. In this month (November) alone, CRPF has
issued job advertisements for 95 posts. “Besides, we have recruited 219
personnel for inducting them in the newly raised cobra battalions,” the
official said.
The home ministry has raised CRPF
cobra battalions to fight naxalites and Maoists. “We are recruiting people to
provide them employment opportunities. Unemployment is the biggest problem
Valley is facing,” CRPF spokesman, Kumar said. There are estimated six lakh
jobless youth in J&K. Kumar said they are drawing men from the entire
valley. “In 2006, people were reluctant to join CRPF. But they are now taking
interest in joining the force.” Border Security Force (BSF) also employs 200
personnel annually from Kashmir. “We have employed 500 people since 2007 in the
valley,” BSF official spokesman said.
J&K police has also emerged as one of the biggest employers in the
state, with the workforce of around one lakh employees, excluding SPOs and
SOGs. However, at the same time it has burdened the state exchequer. Around
3000 youth from the state were employed in police since 2010 during different
recruitment rallies. Apart from routine recruitments, police has held spot
recruitments for various “under-represented” areas, especially in Srinagar
city.
On October 18, 2012, Chief
Minister, Omar Abdullah said about 3000 youth, almost half of them hailing from
different areas of Srinagar, got employment in police during 16 special
recruitment rallies conducted since 2010. He said 1,378 youth were recruited in
seven recruitment rallies conducted in different constituencies of Srinagar
between January 2011 and May 2012. J&K police is the second largest police
force in India with around 1.2 lakh people on its payrolls. Officials said
J&K police has around 80,000 to 90,000 armed personnel, excluding SOG and
SPOs. Besides, nearly 23,690 Special Police Officers and 28,865 volunteers are
working with Village Defence Committees (VDCs), mostly engaged in
anti-militancy operations. J&K government is contemplating to enhance the
monthly honorarium of 23,690 SPOs from Rs 3000 to Rs 5000 and a proposal has
been submitted to Union Home Ministry in this regard. However, the economists
maintain that police recruitments don’t help the state economy any way. “The state government was using this force
for its own purpose. They were cutting their own pockets to compensate the
bulging police numbers,” an economist said.
“The increase in police number is
just a burden on economy. It contributes nothing”. Officials said it is due to
substantial increase in the strength of police force over the last two decades
that police Non-Plan Revenue Expenditure
has increased more than 30 times from Rs
67 crore in 1988-89 to over Rs 2400 crore in 2010-2011 forcing the
government to seek bailout package from Government of India
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