Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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The Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Council, headed by Governor Satya Pal Malik, on Thursday approved the proposal submitted by the State Home department for construction of 20,000 flats “on a self-financing basis” for police personnel. The move comes in the backdrop of frequent abductions and killings of policemen in their native places in Kashmir by militants. “There are extremely limited housing facilities for the J&K police personnel. The objective of the proposal is to create affordable housing facilities for various categories of police personnel along with other amenities. In this way the long-pending housing needs of the police personnel will be met,” a government spokesman said. Around 10,000 flats will be constructed in the Kashmir division and 10,000 in the Jammu division “at one or two locations, subject to the availability of land in each place”. “These flats would be in multi-storied apartments. It will consist of two, three and four BHK. The apartment complex will be provided with the required facilities such as parks, playgrounds, shopping areas etc.,” said the spokesman. The flats, the administration said, will be constructed over a period of two years for which the State land will be provided by the government on nominal charges. “The flats will be allotted to intending police personnel on self-financing basis. The government will facilitate provision of loan from J&K Bank and other banks,” said the spokesman. Official figures suggest that the total strength of the J&K police force is 83,000. The new accommodations will be in addition to the housing facilities already offered in Srinagar and Jammu. Besides, the police have residential quarters in all district police lines. The plan is bigger than the one the Maharashtra government undertook for its 1,90,000 police personnel by providing 8,000 houses in 2016. The State police have lost 37 personnel, including eight Special Police Officers, in militant attacks and abductions till October this year, highest in the past one decade. This year, militants also managed to raid houses of the relatives of the policemen, including the houses of officers of the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police.
