Jammu: J&K government on Thursday constituted 6-member Union Territory level Empowered Committee headed by Financial Commissioner (ACS) Home for “deliberating upon modernization plan of Jammu and Kashmir Police under the scheme Assistance to States or UTs and approving it for submission to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Government of India.”
With Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Home Department in the chair, the panel will comprise Administrative Secretary Finance Department; Director General of Police J&K; Special Director General of Police, Crime Branch, J&K and Administrative Secretary Planning, Development and Monitoring Department as its members while the Additional Director General of Police, Headquarters (PHQ) will be its convener.
As per MHA documents, the plan is aimed at strengthening police infrastructure by equipping the police with the required mobility, modern technology, weaponry, communication equipment etc.
Plan will be submitted for approval under the sub scheme ‘Assistance to States and Union Territories for Modernization of Police’ (ASUMP) of MHA’s Modernisation of State Police Forces (MPF) Scheme. The sub-scheme aimed at supplementing the efforts and resources of the States or UTs, had been renamed as ‘Assistance to States for Modernization of Police’ since 2017.
“Now it has been renamed as ‘Assistance to States and Union Territories for Modernization of Police (ASUMP)’. The objective of the scheme is to strengthen police infrastructure by equipping the police with the required mobility, modern technology, weaponry, communication equipment, forensic set-up, etc. and construction including police housing in specific areas such as Jammu & Kashmir, LWE affected districts and insurgency affected NE States,” MHA document specifies.
Notably on September 20, 2022, MHA’s high-powered committee had discussed JKP’s modernisation plan with the major focus on purchase of sophisticated weapons worth Rs 248 Cr with the top officials of concerned departments of UT, including the Home and Finance Departments. The issues related to unspent balances, submission of Utilization Certificates (UCs), pending projects too were flagged during the meeting.
As per official sources, J&K UT officials were asked to submit an approved plan in this connection (modernisation including purchase of sophisticated weapons) to the MHA.
Significantly, as per MHA documents when the umbrella scheme of “Modernisation of Police Forces” was approved in September, 2017, a component of ‘incentives for police reforms’ was included in the implementation structure of the scheme of ‘Assistance to States for Modernisation of Police’. It was decided to keep a certain amount each year for awarding incentives to the state government for “implementation of Police Reforms.”
To incentivize the implementation of police reforms as recommended by various committees, originally a provision of keeping up to 10 percent of the total annual allocation of the scheme was made. This incentive fund has been increased to ‘up to 20 percent’ from the year 2019-20.
State governments have to contribute their commensurate State share of 40 percent or 10 percent as the case may be. Submission of UCs was a precondition for being eligible for these incentives.
However, major changes in the scheme have been made since the Financial Year 2022-23.
After it is felt that the impact of scheme is not prominently visible at the ground level and due to spread of funds across components and States, scheme is limited to filling the gaps of paucity of funds. To make the scheme impactful at the ground level, construction of police stations has been included in the scheme.
As it has been noted the State or UT governments have scarcity of proper advice and assessment pertaining to the latest technology etc, under the revised MHA (sub) scheme, the States or UTs have now been permitted to hire a PMC (Project Management Consultancy) with not more than 3 percent of the cost of the technical or IT system approval and UTs have been proposed to be included.