In a bid to augment its drive against Maoists, the Odisha Government’s State-level committee on anti-Maoist operations on Friday approved an annual budget of Rs 71 crore for 2017-18 under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme.
The approved budget will be placed before the Centre for approval at a meeting in New Delhi onDecember 11.
The budget amount will be spent on fortifying police stations, construction of boundary walls of police stations, to impart training to State police personnel to meet ammunition and even fuel expenses of the Central paramilitary forces like BSF and CRPF. Besides, compensation will be paid to the family of security personnel and civilians killed during operations against the ultras, from this fund, said Home Department Principal Secretary Asit Tripathy to reporters after the meeting.
“Specifically for meeting expenditure of anti-Maoist operations, there is a scheme for Security Related Expenditure (SRE). Under the scheme, State Government spends first, 60 per cent of which is reimbursed by the Central Government. Today we approved its annual plan for 2017-18. A meeting of the Centre is scheduled for December 11 which had a formal requirement that the State Committee should consider and approve it which was done today. The approved annual plan is around Rs 71 crore,” added Tripathy.