26% of CRPF personnel stationed in J&K

Twenty six per cent of the total strength of the Central Reserve Police Force, a paramilitary police force, has been deployed in Jammu and Kashmir for maintenance of law and order and fighting militancy, a report accessed by Greater Kashmir says.

According to the report presented by the department-related parliamentary standing committee on Home Affairs in the Lok Sabha, 61 battalions of the force are deployed in J&K.  

   

The total strength of the CRPF—the largest paramilitary force in the world—is 235 battalions.

Apart from massive concentration of the CRPF, other paramilitary forces such as Border Security Force, Indo Tibetan Border Police, Sashastra Seema Bal and Central Industrial Security Force have significant presence in the state.

During the 2010 and 2016 massive public agitations lasting months, thousands of additional paramilitary forces were rushed to the state to contain street protests.

Post 2009, the paramilitary forces are seeking deployment charges from the cash-starved J&K for their services.

In May this year, Greater Kashmir had reported that paramilitary forces were seeking Rs 2600 crore on account of their deployment in the state. 

The CRPF alone has Rs 2543 crore bill for its services in the state since 2009, a year after the 2008 Amarnath land row that was marked by the return of street protests in a big way.

Struggling with financial crunch, the J&K government had repeatedly requested the central government to waive off deployment charges, but in vain.

Omar Abdullah, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti, during their tenures as chief ministers, had made such requests to the Union home ministry.

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