Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 25: The Central Government today approved filling up of 2000 vacancies of Special Police Officers (SPOs) in Jammu and Kashmir exclusively from the youth of 10 border districts of the State.
An announcement to this effect was made today through an official statement issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, headed by Rajnath Singh.
“The Centre has sanctioned filling up of 2,000 vacancies of SPOs in Jammu and Kashmir from the youth living in the areas of 0-10 kilometers from International Border (IB), Line of Control (LoC), Line of Actual Control (LoC) and Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL),’’ an official MHA statement said.
As 10 districts of Jammu and Kashmir fall along IB, LoC, LAC and AGPL, the 2000 posts will be equally distributed among them i.e. each district will get 200 posts. The border districts included Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu region, Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara in Kashmir and Leh and Kargil in Ladakh region.
Sanctioned strength of SPOs in Jammu and Kashmir is 35,474. Out of this, 25,474 posts were approved earlier and 10,000 additional posts of SPOs were sanctioned in 2016. Presently, there are over 3,000 vacancies of SPOs in the State. However, with the recruitment of 2000 more SPOs, number of the vacancies will come down to 1000.
During his recent visit to Jammu and Kashmir on June 7 and 8, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had announced that out of these 3000 vacancies, 2000 SPOs would be appointed from amongst the youth residing between 0-10 kilometers from the border areas.
Besides this, Rajnath has already approved two women police battalions for Jammu and Kashmir with 60 per cent reservations for border women. In five other Indian Reserve Police (IRP) battalions being raised in Jammu and Kashmir, the border youth would get 60 per cent reservations.
Rajnath had also increased compensation for family members of border dwellers, killed in Pakistan shelling and firing from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh and for cattle from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000. He had also removed ceiling of compensation for three cattle only and the border people would now get relief and all the cattle they lose in shelling and firing. He had also announced five bullet-proof ambulances for the border people.
Apart from this during his visit here, Rajnath had announced Rs 5.5 lakh compensation for every family of West Pakistani refugees and increase in relief of Kashmir and Jammu migrants from Rs 10,000 to Rs 13,000 per month.
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