Union Home Ministry on Wednesday approved hike in the salaries of Special Police Officers (SPOs) in Jammu and Kashmir amid reports that more than 40 SPOs have resigned in South Kashmir after appeals by their parents to do so.
There is a conflict of interest between the SPOs and the regular cops in the state police. Most of the anti-terror operations post 2016 unrest, SPOs have been on the frontline in these operations, even as they get only a week-long training for the handling of fire arms. According to the police officials, at present there are more than 35,000 SPOs engaged with the department.
Recently, the State Administrative Council (SAC) has enhanced ex-gratia for the next kin of regular state police officials to Rs 70 lakh and that of the SPOs to Rs 30 lakh. Similarly, the latest MHA communication has asked the state government to enhance the monthly remuneration of SPOs upto Rs 12,000 per month from Rs 6,000.
As resignations increased, the government tried to arrest this trend by enhancing the ex-gratia and the monthly remuneration of these SPOs. The Chief Secretary recently told the media that the number of resignations of SPOs was very negligible.
After the killing of three SPOs in Shopian earlier this month, many of the families of SPOs working with SOG wing of the state police have left their villages in South Kashmir. “We are trying to relocate these vulnerable families and many of them are being helped by the police to get accommodation,” said a senior police officer to this newspaper.
In the Kongan village of Pulwama, most of these families are living in fear and have tried to get area security from police and paramilitary forces. In this small village, more than 40 families have their wards in the state police and the threat to their life has increased.
The state police is one of the main government organisations where the rural youth get employment either as permanent employees or SPOs. At present, the department has over 1.2 lakh employees on permanent basis.
Most of the senior police officers in Srinagar say that this phase would be over very soon and they do not agree that this threat will linger or enhance. “We are after Riyaz Naikoo and his men and recently we have been able to kill half a dozen of terrorists in South Kashmir within a few days. We are hopeful that we will be able to get a grip on South Kashmir very soon,” said a senior police officer looking after the region.