Home dept gets 70% more in Gujarat budget

The allocation for the home department in the state has seen an increase of around 70% every year since the last three years. The budget allocation increased from Rs470 crore in the year 2010-11 to Rs804 crore for this year. But unlike every year, the percentage of money set aside to be spent on police modernisation has seen a decrease.

After allotting Rs44.51 crore in the last financial year to form new Quick Response Teams (QRTs) and Bomb Disposal Squads, the government this time has allotted only Rs22 crore. The money will be exclusively spent to form 20 new QRTs across the state. The budget allocation for police modernisation in the year 2009-10 was Rs60 crore which had increased to Rs170 crore in the year 2010-11. This decreased to Rs68 crore for the current financial year.

A provision of Rs96 crore for modernisation of prisons was made in the year 2009-10, which decreased to Rs22.93 crore and eventually increased to Rs81.29 for the current financial year.

However, the funds in the current year will also be spent for traffic regulations and arrangements.   

Unlike last year, there is no announcement of formation of new battalion or group, but a large chunk of modernisation funds will be used for training of commandos. The allocation for Border Area Development has increased by Rs1 crore to touch Rs33 crore.

The fund for Border Area Development was Rs 42 crore (2009-10) and Rs32 crore in 2010-11. 

Apart from that Rs5.74 crore has been allocate to develop 12 new police stations across the state.

The state government will spend Rs40 crore this year for e-governance for the state police. The fund allocated for the same last year was Rs43 crore.