Budget gives Home Ministry about 10% hike

The Union Home Ministry has got a marginal 10 per cent hike in the Union Budget 2010-11 over last year's allocation, that also pegs the expected expenses to 15 per cent less in the next fiscal.

The modest increase in the Home Ministry budget is because of provision for housing for Central para-military forces and training personnel.

The Budget, presented in Parliament today by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, has earmarked Rs 37,136.07 crore for the Home Ministry against Rs 33,809.86 crore in 2009-10, a hike of 10 per cent.

The proposals for Intelligence Bureau include Rs 15 crore under the plan outlay while another Rs 764.37 under the non-plan outlay. The budgetary provisions come up to Rs 779.37 crore which is 15.14 per cent less compared to Rs 918.03 crore in the last fiscal.

The proposals also include Rs 175 crore for the prestigious Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System as against Rs 104 crore in the last fiscal whereas the funds earmarked for the ambitious plan of having a National Grid for intelligence gathering  remain the same at Rs 1.50 crore.

Under border management, Rs 1489.28 crore have been allotted for improving coastal security, maintenance of border work and setting up of new border outposts.

An additional amount of Rs 1,975.82 crore has been set aside for providing assistance to the states for modernisation of police forces, security related expenditures, establishment of critical infrastructure in Left wing extremism-affected areas, for assistance to the counter-insurgency machinery and setting up of schools to train personnel in anti-terror operations.

For the police, a proposal of Rs 30,000 crore has been earmarked, besides the assistance to the states for modernisation of police force which has been pegged at Rs 1,975 crore, a modest increase of Rs 130 crore over the actual expenditure incurred in 2009-10.

Delhi Police has been provided Rs 2,805 crore, the same level as the estimated actual expenditure in 2009-10.

Construction of housing for the Central Police Forces has been allocated Rs 444 crore while Immigration services have been provided Rs 155 crore and the bulk of this provision — Rs 140 crore — will be spent on setting up Integrated Check Posts.

At the request of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, the Finance Minister made a reference to the proposal of recruiting 2,000 personnel belonging to Jammu and Kashmir to the five central para military forces — CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB and CISF — in the year 2010.