Cong alleges bias against Jammu in police recruitment, stages walkout
Jammu, January 22
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Abdul Rehman Veeri today said the high number of Special Police Officers (SPOs) engaged in the Kashmir valley against the less number of officers engaged in Jammu was due to “certain important reasons” taking into consideration the security-related concerns in the state.
The minister was responding to a joint question by Congress legislators Ghulam Nabi Monga and Thakur Balbir Singh in the Legislative Council on the engagement of SPOs in the state during the past three years and the criteria and mode of selection adopted in their engagement.
Monga said though the government had engaged 11,442 SPOs in the past three years, but in contradiction, it says that 5,689 SPOs had undergone physical tests for recruitment conducted through the designated selection committees for their recruitment.
“I want the government to clarify that if it has conducted tests for 5,689 SPOs, then how can it recruit 11,442 officers?” Monga asked.
While Agriculture Minister GN Lone rose to answer, Veeri took over from him saying that earlier there was no accountability regarding the engagement of SPOs.
Unsatisfied, Monga said when the government figures were conflicting, what transparency was it talking about. The minister tried to elaborate more saying that the state had more than 30,000 SPOs and for the first time, the government had taken an initiative on the transparency of their recruitment.
Monga rose from his seat and walked out in protest against the government's failure to address the discrepancy in the figures.
Thakur Balbir Singh said Jammu felt ignored by getting only 1,500 SPOs as against 9,500 in the Valley and said no list of SPOs was published so that Jammu people couldn't find any shortcomings in them. “There is anger in Jammu against such an attitude,” he said to which NC MLC Shenaz Ganai rose and sought the Chairman's attention for expunging Balbir's statement terming it being aimed at differentiating two regions and religions, which the Chairman ignored.
Veeri said since Jammu had more village defence committees as necessary for its topographical requirement for security reasons, more SPOs in the Valley were due to the security-related purposes there. “Such an arrangement had been done as per the situation and problems in the Valley,” Veeri added.
