<span style="color: #222222;">The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) revealed that the annual Security-Related Expenditure (SRE) for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir was 1,267 crore rupees, highest ever since the inception of the scheme. Our correspondent reports that the highest ever figure of SRE also coincided with the financial year 2019-20, the year when the Centre announced scrapping of article 370 and bifurcated the erstwhile State of J&K into two Union Territories J&K and Ladakh. The MoS for Home Affairs, G. Kishan Reddy in a written reply to a query in the Parliament said that during the financial year 2019-2020, the allocated amount was released under SRE (Police). In addition, the MHA also released 40.20 crore rupees for the modernization of Jammu & Kashmir Police for the same period. During 2018-19, the Centre allocated 650 crore rupees to J&K under the SRE scheme. In 2017-18, the figure was 628 crore rupees and in 2016-2017, the amount released was 750 crore rupees.<br />''<br />''Pertinently, since the scheme was launched in 1989, the Government of India has released almost 9,000 crore rupees for J&K's Security Related Expenditure. The money disbursed by the government of India to J&K as security expenditure got doubled compared to 2018-19 figure. The MHA reimburses the expenditure incurred by the UT Administration on a variety of security-related measures including expenditure on carriage of constabulary, material supplies, rent of accommodation, honorarium to Special Police Officers, civic action programmes, air-lift charges, raising cost of India Reserve Battalions, transport, boarding and lodging, alternate accommodation for forces. To support the UT Administration, the Central Government makes available Central Armed Police Forces as and when necessary and provides all possible help to strengthen the UT Police.</span>