The Jammu and Kashmir government has urged the Union Home Ministry to uniformly enhance the monthly honorarium of all the Special Police Officers (SPOs) from Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000 effective from January 1.
"On the directions of Governor N N Vohra, the State Home Department has, in a letter to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, requested the central government to sanction uniform enhancement of monthly honorarium of all SPOs without imposing any pre-condition so as to enable the state government to issue necessary orders in this regard," an official spokesman said.
The state government has pointed out that the SPOs have been carrying out operational duties through direct participation in anti-militancy operations, gathering intelligence, guarding vital installations and some of them work as force multipliers during law and order situations.
Keeping in view their varied and interchangeable roles depending upon the ground requirements, it is difficult to categorize them on the basis of their skills or nature of the duty etc and prescribe different scales of honorarium to them.
At present, there are around 24,068 SPOs in the state and keeping in view their services, the state government has urged the government of India to fulfill their long-pending demand.
The enhancement of the SPOs' remuneration is part of the special package announced by the Prime Minister during his visit to Srinagar on November 7, last year.
