All-women battalion to patrol J&K Valley

New Delhi: The home ministry has decided to provided additional fund to the Jammu and Kashmir government for raising an all-women reserve battalion that would focus on incidents of stone-pelting and other local law and order arrangements. However, they would focus primarily on dealing with local protests.

The decision was taken during a high-level meeting, chaired by home minister Rajnath Singh, on Thursday to discuss the Rs 80,000 crore development package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015. The Centre also decided to release Rs 19,000 crore of this package for various infrastructure projects and promoting tourism.

The women contingent would be one of the five reserve battalions being raised for J&K. Nearly 1.4 lakh candidates had applied for the 5,000 posts in the five battalions out of which, 6,000 were found to be women. This and the recent incidents in Srinagar where schoolgirls were seen indulging in stone-pelting prompted the home ministry to go in for an all-women battalion.

Almost 40 per cent of the applicants for the battalions are from the Kashmir Valley as home ministry officials claimed that with as many as 30 applicants against one post was extremely encouraging.

Since the basic aim of reserve battalions is to provide job opportunities to the local youth, as many as 60 per cent vacancies would be reserved for candidates from the border districts.

While the Centre would pay 75 per cent of the Rs 61 crore required to raise each battalion, the Jammu and Kashmir government would give rest of the amount.

The state already has five such battalions. Though reserve battalion personnel are generally deployed in their own state, but if required they can be sent to other parts of the country as well.