The Chhattisgarh Government has hiked the budget of its police department seven times in the last 11 years, an official statement said on Monday. The budget had been hiked especially for modernising the police forces and to create facilities for them.
During the first year after becoming the Chief Minister the State Government led by Chief Minister Raman Singh made a budgetary provision of Rs 216 crore for the State police in fiscal year 2004-2005.
This has now increased to Rs 2007 crore. The Government has increased it further to Rs.2243 crore for the fiscal year 2014-2015 staring on April 1. The statement said the budgetary allocation made for the police department was Rs 444 crore, Rs 579 crore, Rs 678 crore, Rs 810 crore , Rs 1104 crore, Rs 1484 crore and 1698 crore respectively in 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 respectively.
The State Government has been giving importance to the police modernisation to ensure safety and security to the State people. In the last ten years, as many as 42,000 people have been appointed in the police forces taking the total police personals in the State to 68489, it said.
After the formation of separate Chhattisgarh State, the Government has procured modern security and other equipment worth Rs 83.64 crore. Similarly the Government has spent Rs 32.77 crore in the equipments like VHF, HF sets, scramblers, satellite phones and towers, it said.
Besides the Government has purchased armed and ammunition worth Rs 60.77 crore. In the last one decade, the Government has spent Rs 8.82 crore in police modernisation. The Government has also built houses for accommodation of police personals including for inspectors and chief inspectors. The Government has also given emphasis on modern training so that people can get justice quickly, it said.