The honorarium for Special Police Officers (SPOs) of Jammu and Kashmir, who have been helping security forces to tackle militancy, has been doubled to Rs 6,000 per month.
The Centre cleared the proposal of the state government which was submitted in early 2012 by the then Omar Abdullah government.
"The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has enhanced the honorarium of Special Police Officers (SPOs) of Jammu and Kashmir upto Rs 6,000 per month from Rs 3,000 per month. The enhancement of honorarium will come into effect from today," an official statement said.
The state has 25,827 SPOs against the sanctioned strength of 30,000.
The honorarium is given by the state government and reimbursed by the Central government under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme.
The last enhancement was done in 2006. It is expected that this will boost the morale of the SPOs who play a vital role in combating militancy in the state.
Giving approval to the proposal, Home Minister Rajnath Singh has also constituted a committee comprising representatives of Home Ministry and state government for assessing the performance, utility and efficacy of the SPOs.
When the proposal for enhancement of honorarium was mooted in 2012, it was in-principle agreed by the then Home Minister P Chidambaram.
However, the Finance Ministry had put the proposal in cold storage citing fund crunch as one of the reasons.
The SPOs, who show exemplary works, are promoted as followers or constables.
The SPOs were recruited in police force at the peak of trouble in the state and proved very effective in dealing with the militancy due to their local knowledge and intelligence network.
Many of the SPOs were former militants who surrendered before the authorities and later helped them combat militancy.
