LAHORE, June 9: The Punjab government has increased the police budget from Rs52,788.270 million in 2011-12 to Rs62,251.774 million in 2012-13, showing an increase of 18 per cent.
However, the police department has made expenditure up to Rs59,825.949m in 2011-12, which is Rs7,037.679m or 13.33 per cent more than the allocated budget, according to revised budget estimates.
The government has now allocated Rs81,864.264m under Public Order and Safety Affairs head for next fiscal year compared to Rs69,244.576m, with the police department getting 88.74 per cent chunk followed by justice (9.11 per cent), jails (2.14 per cent) and civil defence (0.01 per cent).
The general head comprises courts of law, police, prisons, relief and crisis management including fire protection, anti-corruption establishment/economic crime and civil defence.
According to breakup of allocations for different departments, law courts have got Rs9,416.002m in next fiscal compared to Rs8,253.714m allocated in 2011-12, with 14 per cent increase.
The prison administration and operation have been allocated Rs5,364.201m in 2012-13 against Rs4,143.587m allocated in 2011-12, an increase of 29 per cent.
For administration of public order, the government has allocated Rs4,781.115m in 2012-13 compared to Rs4,013.040m in current fiscal.
The fire protection department has got Rs51.172m in next fiscal against Rs45.965m in current fiscal.
Interestingly, the department had not been released allocated budget as it got only Rs43.036m, which is 6.37 per cent less.
The government has not allocated amount against budgetary requirements of police department which demanded approximately Rs8,500m against increasing operational expenditure.
Similarly, the prisons department had sought Rs5,704.247m for 2012-13 keeping in view increasing establishment charges, operating system and other heads.
The department, under estimated demand budget, had requested the government to release Rs2,719.169m under establishment charges, Rs2,920.646m under operating system, Rs15m under Works and Rs14.350m under A013.
The government though increased police budget up to 18 per cent, but officials say around 80 per cent of the total budget goes to salaries and allowances every year and 15 per cent to operational expenditure including POL, repairs, electricity etc.
The department had sought around Rs85.72 billion against overall expenditure in multiple heads for 2012-13. An amount of Rs69.7bn was sought for establishment charges; Rs4.91bn for POL; Rs9.10bn for operational expenditure; Rs0.20bn forCost of Investigation; Rs0.34bn for Shaheed Fund; Rs0.23bn for scholarships; and others.
The government announced Rs3bn for forensic science laboratory and 2bn for CCTVs. As many as 100 model police stations had been built at a cost of Rs600 million.
Punjab Additional IG Welfare and Finance Sarmad Saeed Khan says the police this time have demanded Rs3 billion for construction of infrastructure, Rs2 billion for recruitment of 10,000 police constables and Rs600m for anti-riot equipmentin addition to annual budget.
He said the annual budget witnessed an increase keeping in view rising costs, but acknowledged that around 83 per cent covered salaries and allowances.