Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday issued directions to complete the recruitment process for raising two New Border Battalions of Jammu & Kashmir Police by March, 2019. The MHA has approved Rs 105 crore for the two battalions that would be raised from the people living within 0 - 10 km of International Border/Line of Control. Singh also directed that compensation for live-stock killed in cross-border firing may be increased to Rs 50,000 from Rs 30,000 presently.

Five India Reserve Battalions (IRB) are also being raised with 4,690 youth recruited. They will start joining next month. Also, 6,689 SPOs have been appointed out of a total of 10,000 new posts sanctioned. “The possibility of filling up of the vacancies of SPOs from Border living community may be explored,” the MHA said after Rajnath Singh reviewed the progress of the Department of Jammu & Kashmir Affairs at a high level meeting in the Ministry of Home Affairs here.

In view of 1,252 ceasefire violations by Pakistan during the current year, the Home Minister called for expediting construction of bunkers along the International Border (IB) and Line of Control (LoC) to protect the border residents. The MHA has approved Rs 415 crores for construction of more than 14,000 bunkers in Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch districts. Work on construction of 1,431 community and more than 13,000 individual bunkers will commence from July, said the statement issued by MHA

Home Minister expressed satisfaction that there has been a significant drop in stone-pelting incidents since the Government announced Suspension of Operations during the Ramzan.

Of the Prime Minister’s Development Package worth Rs 80,068 crores, nearly 63,000 crores have been sanctioned for 63 projects pertaining to 15 Central Ministries. More than Rs 24,000 crores (31 per cent) have been released and over Rs 20,000 crores (26 per cent) utilised. 13 projects have been completed/substantially completed.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, Tuesday, 29 May 2018 | PNS | New Delhi