Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 10: While twenty-five (25) persons in the State have been provided Z plus security, and a whopping amount of Rs 10.88 lakhs is being spent on the security of 1278 protected persons in the State.
While replying to a question of Congress Member Jugal Kishore Sharma in the Upper House today, Minister for Horticulture, Hajj and Auqaf, Abdul Rehman Veeri, while responding on behalf of Chief Minister said that Government is providing security to 1,278 Protected Persons (PPs), in the shape of Personal Security Officer (PSOs), residential guards, vehicles, hotel accommodation etc in J&K.
He further said that out of these, 25 were provided with Z plus, 396 Z, 150 Y, 282 X and 425 with X-2 category security cover.
The security wing of J&K Police is providing security cover to MLAs, MLCs, ex-ministers, ex-MLAs and ex-MLCs, political leaders, workers, bureaucrats and former bureaucrats in the State as per their entitlement strictly in accordance with the guidelines of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
Mr Veeri said the security cover category of the protected persons is reviewed periodically by the Security Review Coordination Committee (SRCC) constituted by the State Government.
Replying to yet another question, the minister said keeping in view the sensitivity of the matter, it would not be appropriate to disclose the details of security cover being provided or withdrawn from the differently protected persons.
Giving more details, Mr Veeri said the monthly expenditure on account of security of these protected persons is Rs 10,88,53,460 per month.
He said that Rs 5,56,07,721 is the salary of PSOs, Rs 45,44,403 on account of fuel, Rs 47,30,495 on hotel accommodation and Rs 4,39,70,841 on residential guard is being spent every month. Supplementary questions were also raised by Ghulam Nabi Monga, Naresh Gupta, Sofi Yousuf and Vibodh Gupta. They cornered the Government for failure to provide better mobile security vehicles to the legislators.
Replying to yet another question of PDP member Firdous Ahmed Tak, Mr Veeri said that there are 25632 VDC members operating in Jammu division, Leh and Kargil.
He said that militancy in Jammu region has declined considerably during the past many years. However, some militancy related incidents have taken place in Jammu region during the year 2014-15.
Veeri said that during the year 2014, 12 militancy related incidents took place in Jammu region. He said during the year 2015 up to March 22, three militancy related incidents have taken place in Jammu region.
He further said that SPOs deployed with VDCs are paid honorarium @ Rs. 3000 per month on the analogy of SPOs working in the Police Department adding that capsule training is imparted to the VDC members through police. He said the training is being monitored by the concerned SDPOs and Police Stations.
Supplementaries were also raised by Dr Shehnaz Ganai and Vibodh Gupta.
Replying to another question of Ali Mohd Dar Mr Veeri said about 2300 prisoners are lodged in jails of J&K, who include 343 convicts, 37 under PSA and 1920 under trials.
He said out of 37 detained under PSA , 17 are locals and 20 foreigners. He further said that no Indian prisoner who has completed his term of sentence is lodged in jails of J&K State.
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