Even though the Omar Abdullah-led coalition Government has been claiming that the overall security situation in Jammu & Kashmir has considerably improved in the recent years and almost all the indices of violence have shown a declining trend yet the total number of protected persons is gradually increasing in the State.
In 1996 the State had only 424 persons on the list of protected persons and their number gradually rose to 635 in 2008-09. As on date there are around 1,036 protected persons in the State, official sources in the Home Department told The Pioneer.
Contrary to the general perception about the security situation on ground zero the number of terrorist related incidents has decreased by 35 per cent during the year 2012 as compared to 2011.
Similarly, there has been a decline of 40 per cent and 54 per cent in the civilian killings and killings of security forces respectively during the year 2012 as compared to year 2011.
Meanwhile in the last three years the state government has spent a whopping sum of 1285.25 crore on security related expenditure.
The State Government spent around 343 crore on security related expenditure in 2009-10, 376 crore in 2010-11, 339 crore in 2011-12 and till February end this year the State Government incurred an expenditure of 226 crore.
The security wing of the State Government provides security cover to these protected persons as per the guidelines provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Yellow book and the category/quantum of security cover is decided by the security review coordination committee periodically on the basis of threat perception.
State Government authorities claimed that number of political workers which was less has increased due to participation of people in elections for the State legislature.