KL Report
JAMMU
J&K government on Tuesday disclosed that it has spent a whopping sum of Rs 452.43 crore on personal and home security, accommodation and movement of 1472 political activists in last five years. Though the government has been protecting a class of its activists for years, the numbers have remained varying between different years and regimes.
Right now, the government said they are protecting 1472 political activists of whom 669 are not formally categorized. These activists are scattered across the 22 districts of the state with Srinagar topping the list with 124 categorized and 83 uncategorized activists. Jammu plays the second fiddle with Doda almost equalling it. Reasi and Leh are the two districts that fall lowest in the ladder.
The government said they have provided 708 vehicles to the security wing as part of the security cover to 481 protected political persons. “As on date, 440 political activists including 294 un-categorized political activists have been provided secured hotel accommodation,” the government said.
Offering details, the government said in 2014-15, it has booked an expenditure of Rs 40.18 crore on providing them personal security officers, Rs 69.64 crore for salary on the people who are guarding them, Rs 5.18 crore on their fuel and Rs 3.60 crore on funding their hotel accommodation. It makes a yearly outgo of Rs 118.60 crore.
The expenditure on this front was slightly lower last year in 2013-14. Then, Rs 33.78 crore was booked on salary on PSOs, Rs 64.57 crore on salary of their guards, Rs 48.09 crore on fuel and Rs 3.89 crore on the hotel accommodation.
The exact outgo on PSO salaries for five years stands at RS 1499290238, nufri salary who guards them and their assets at Rs 2595399540, Rs 264334765 on fuel and balance Rs 165287000 on hiring the hotel for their accommodation.
This expenditure excludes the public money that goes in repairs and renovation of the bungalows wherefrom the ministers operate. Estates department has incurred an expenditure of Rs 9.58 crores in last five years.
A miniscule part of this expenditure, mostly related to the hiring of hotels is being partly reimbursed by the MHA under Security Related Expenditure. In a separate intervention, the state government informed the state assembly that the MHA released Rs 341.11 crore under SRE in 2012-13v and Rs 361.93 crore in 2013-14. The state government has not, however, spent this money fully. SRE includes only rent of hotels to the tune of Rs 32 crore each in 2012-13 and 2013-14.
