Central Assistance, Ladakh gets Rs 4692 Crore Budget
Srinagar, Feb 1: The Union Government on Saturday proposed an allocation of Rs 41,000.07 crore to the Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory for the financial year 2025-26.
As part of fund transfers to Union Territories, the Union Finance Ministry today proposed an allocation of Rs 41,000.07 crore to Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory in the Union Budget for 2025-26.
As per the break-up of financial assistance for Jammu & Kashmir, Rs 40,619.30 crore has been kept as central assistance for J&K to bridge its resource gap. An additional Rs 279 crore has been allocated as grants towards the contribution to the Union Territory Disaster Response Fund, and Rs 101.77 crore to meet resource gap funding for infrastructure projects.
The figures showed that J&K’s allocation for the next fiscal is almost Rs 604 crore less than the allocation for 2023-24. As per revised estimates for 2024-25, J&K’s allocation has been reduced by Rs 1277 crore. While the allocation, as per budget estimates, was Rs 42,277.74 crore, it has been revised to Rs 41,000.07 crore.
It is worthwhile to mention that Jammu & Kashmir is heavily dependent on Central assistance in Union Territories. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had himself met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to seek additional assistance of Rs 6000 crore.
As per the Union Budget, Rs 4692.15 crore has been allocated for the Union Territory of Ladakh for 2025-26. Of this, Rs 2450 crore has been kept as revenue expenditure and Rs 2242.15 crore as capital expenditure.
JK Police gets 9325 Cr in Union Budget
Srinagar, Feb 1: The Government of India has allocated Rs 9325 crore for the Jammu & Kashmir Police, which is under the administrative control of the Union Home Ministry, in the Union Budget for 2025-26.
As per the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) demands for grants for 2025-26, Rs 9325.73 crore have been allocated to the J&K Police in the Union Budget. Of this amount, Rs 8897.72 crore has been earmarked for the revenue expenditure and Rs 428.01 crore for the capital expenditure.
These budgetary provisions have been made to meet the administrative expenditures of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, which is responsible for maintaining and enforcing law and order and managing traffic in J&K.
Since 2024-25, the J&K Police’s budget has been part of the Union Budget. While the Union government has described the takeover of the J&K Police budget as an act of financial benevolence, opposition parties have argued that it indicates J&K will continue to remain under the Union government’s control for a longer period.
In 2019, the Union Government took over the power of legislating on J&K Police through the J&K Reorganisation Act. “Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Legislative Assembly may make laws for the whole or any part of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the State List except the subjects mentioned at entries 1 and 2, namely ‘Public Order’ and ‘Police’ respectively, or the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India in so far as any such matter is applicable in relation to the Union territories,” section 28 of the law bifurcating J&K into two UTs states.
