Arms shortage plagues Chhattisgarh Police: CAG

The latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) speaks of a major flaw in the working of police department of Naxal-infested Chhattisgarh.

The police department had 49,143 units of weapons, of which 11,232 or about 23 per cent, were obsolete, the CAG report for the year ended March 31, 2009 said. There was also shortage of weapons as per Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) norms.

The police headquarters had assessed a total requirement of 47,265 units under various categories of modern weapons against which the availability was 37,911 units. There was shortage of 9,354 units or about 20 per cent of the requirement, the report added.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had allotted 14,183 units of modern weapons during 2006-09 against the demand of 19,334 units by Chhattisgarh Police. The state police had spent Rs 205.63 crore under the modernisation scheme launched by the Centre as against the total outlay of Rs 260.15 crore; leaving an unspent amount of Rs 54.52 crore that constitures about 20 per cent of the total outlay.

The performance audit of the scheme showed that there were large savings, mainly under security and communication equipment heads, the report said, adding that despite availability of funds, large numbers of residential and non-residential buildings had not been completed. There were shortage of light vehicles in the police stations as well.