From now onwards, Centre to fully fund J&K Police

Srinagar, July 23: In a significant move to boost development in Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre has announced it will take over the entire financial burden of the J&K's Police force.

This decision is expected to free up substantial resources for welfare and development projects in the area.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made this announcement during the J&K Budget speech in the Parliament today.

“The Union Government has agreed to take the entire burden of the police budget from the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.

Currently, around 11 percent of J&K’s budget is allocated to policing, which the minister described as “unavoidable expenses” that leaves limited room for development initiatives.

By shouldering this financial responsibility, the Centre aims to address this constraint.

The Centre has allocated Rs 12,000 crore in the annual budget to cover the salary, pension, and other costs associated with the J&K Police.

This substantial sum underscores the government's commitment to both security and development in the region.

“It is observed that around 11 percent of the budget of J&K 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 J&K. The Centre will now provide for the salary, pension, and other costs of J&K Police for which an allocation of Rs 12,000 crore has been made in the annual budget,” she said. “While analysing the fiscal situation of J&K, we observed that due to historical challenges in financial management, it has a legacy of very high fiscal stress. This is aggravated by the committed nature of the major expenditures not supported by proportionate increase in its revenues. Its dependence on central grants is to the tune of around 70 percent of its total expenditure. The perpetual fiscal stress leads to frequent use of ways and means advances and overdraft.”

The Finance Minister said that this year the Centre decided to correct this historical aberration by providing adequate financial support to J&K coupled with reforms to come out of the perpetual fiscal stress.

“I am happy to mention here that to correct the complex fiscal issues of J&K, a special central assistance of Rs 17,000 crore has been worked out,” she said.