The jawans of Jammu & Kashmir Police may have been sacrificing their lives in the line of duty to win the war against terror but the State police department has failed to equip them with lifesaving and other basic operational equipment, including light motor vehicles and motorcycles. According to the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the life saving equipments like body protectors and bulletproof vests were not available with majority of the 105 police stations across eight test-checked districts of the State, four each in Jammu & Kashmir regions.
The audit was conducted by the CAG covering the period from 2009-10 to 2013-14. The Omar Abdullah-led alliance Government was in office between January 2009 till October 2014. According to the CAG report tabled in the State Assembly on Friday, “only nine out of 105 police stations have been equipped with night vision devices (NVD), while only two police stations were found to be equipped with bomb disposal equipment”.
“A total number of 2,865 police personnel were posted across these 105 police stations but these body protectors and bulletproof vests were made available to only 68 and 74 police stations respectively,” the CAG report revealed. These police stations also faced shortage of light motor vehicles and motor cycles to the extent of 53 per cent and 69 per cent respectively.
As against the requirement of 432 vehicles (248 lMVs and 184 motor cycles), the 105 police stations (40 urban and 65 rural) in the eight districts were holding only 134 vehicles. 26 police posts/police stations were without any vehicles and 28 police posts/stations possessed condemned vehicles.
Audit analysis of total expenditure incurred under the head of expenditure ‘carriage of constabulary’ and fuel provided to the vehicles of police stations of eight test-checked districts revealed that during 2009-2014 the allotment of fuel to the vehicles was meagre and only 13 to 22 per cent of funds allotted under the head were utilised on running and maintenance of vehicles. CAG report also revealed that one-third to one-fifth of fuel quota had been consumed in to and fro journeys by vehicles from police stations to petrol pumps.
The police department had failed to prepare five-year strategic policing plan and the annual action plan for the State as a whole which resulted in poor implementation of the recommendations of Bureau of Police research and Department. During the survey CAG also found the working and living conditions of police personnel in police stations was not up to the mark. Around 18 police stations and 103 police posts in the State were without their own buildings and had been functioning in hired accommodation. The separate toilets for women existed in only 13 of the 105 police stations and none of the police stations in six of the eight police districts had a separate toilet for the women.