Jammu, Aug 05: Kashmir's fight against terrorism is taxing the public exchequer heavily, with an expenditure of Rs 3630 crore having been incurred on security-related expenditure (SRE) in Jammu and Kashmir during the last 13 years, according to state government officials. "As much as Rs 3630.29 crore has been spent by state government on security related expenditure between 1989 and 2002, while the Centre has reimbursed an amount of Rs 2357.85 crore during the period to the state," the officials said. The SRE account made an entry in the budget records in 1989-90 for the first time in the history of the state with a modest amount of Rs 41.47 crore, they said. It later snowballed into a whopping amount and in the year 1999-2000, it went up to Rs 549.11 crore, they said. Jammu and Kashmir government spent Rs 41.47 crore on SRE in 1989-90, which went up to Rs 348.22 crore in 2002-2003.

Rs 530.45 crore were made available by the Centre to Jammu and Kashmir for relief and rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants and Rs 362.79 crore for welfare activities.
Bureau Report