LAHORE: The Punjab government has allocated Rs123.437 billion for courts and police under the head of “Public order and safety affairs” for the year 2015-16, which is nine per cent more than the allocation made in the last financial year.
The government had earmarked Rs113.218 billion last year, but it revised the budgetary allocation and reduced it to Rs100.159bn.
The 2015-16 allocation includes Rs15.96bn for law courts, Rs87.92bn for Punjab police, 7pc more than the previous year allocation, Rs64.544m for fire protection, Rs7.64bn for prison administration and operation, and Rs11.85bn for administration of public order.
The budget document says that the allocation for all formations, especially the counter-terrorism department (CTD), elite police force and district police have been enhanced to provide better security to public.
The government also earmarked Rs4bn for “emergent needs relating to law and order” and Rs1bn block allocation for “community participation in law and order” for the home department to strengthen security of the province.
The allocations include Rs64.596m for the Punjab Service Tribunal under the head of general administration.
For the administration of justice, Rs10.802m has been earmarked for the Lahore High Court, Rs3.9bn for sessions courts, Rs7.5bn for civil courts, Rs112m for special courts and Rs33m for courts of small causes. A sum of Rs266.917m has been allocated for the Punjab Judicial Academy.
The document states that Rs30m has been allocated for construction of the judicial complex (Phase-II) in Lahore and an amount of Rs20m has been allocated to addition/alteration in the Lahore High Court.
An amount of Rs3.765m has been earmarked for construction of court block record room, committee room, toilet block and additional room on the premises of the Model Town courts in Lahore. An amount of Rs20m has been allocated for enhancing security on court premises in Punjab, including construction of a boundary wall around the civil and sessions courts in the province.
An amount of Rs747m has been allocated for Anti-Corruption Establishment and Rs85m for special judges of anti-corruption courts.
The budgetary allocations also include Rs1.8bn for police training institutes of the province and Rs4.3bn for the Punjab Constabulary.
Funds for Secretariat: Huge funds have been proposed in the Punjab budget 2015-16 for the repair and reconstruction of buildings and other purposes in the Civil Secretariat.
The major projects include construction of a multi-storey office block on the existing health department building (Rs30m), construction of purpose-built building for the Punjab Archives Department (Rs20m), replacement of dangerous roofs (Rs5m), renovation of H-Block (Rs20 m), construction of control room and barracks (Rs6.7m).
The demand for provision of information technology for the chief secretary office is Rs8m, provision of security arrangements in the new minister’s block Rs10m, improvement of the facade of the law department Rs10m, renovation of finance department’s budget hall Rs4.99m.
Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2015
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