Home Dept seeks Rs10.9b for law, order

LAHORE
The Punjab Home Department has demanded Rs 10.986 billion as block allocation for the next fiscal year for maintaining law and order situation in the province, extension of Elite Force Training School and creation of posts of SPU, The News has learnt
The documents available with The News revealed that the demand was made during a recent meeting of cabinet sub-committee on law and order chaired by Provincial Home Minister Col (retd) Shuja Khanzada.
Home Secretary Maj (retd) Azam Suleman Khan, Additional IGP (Finance) Sohail Khan, Additional IGP (Operations) Arif Nawaz, Additional IGP (Special Branch) Dr Arif Mushtaq, Additional IGP (Counter Terrorism Department) Rai Muhammad Tahir, DIG Elite Force & SPU Muhammad Tahir, Additional Secretary Home Department (Police) Sohail Ashraf and SSP/MT CPO Imran Mahmood attended the meeting.
The participants were of the view that the provincial government should allocate Rs 2.200 billion for Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) to purchase helicopter, technical equipment and Ordinance store, Rs. 3.5 billion for development schemes and equipment for newly created Dolphin Force, Rs. 5 billion for SPU for proposed induction of 10,000 police personnel and Rs 286 million for Special Branch for purchasing technical equipment and replacement of outlived vehicles.
Home Secretary Azam Suleman briefed the meeting that the provincial government had allocated Rs 5 billion under the head of block allocation during the financial year of 2014-15. The said amount was allocated for meeting emergent needs concerning to law and order situation of the province. He informed that Rs 4.083 billion had been utilised and added that the remaining amount is likely to be utilised by the end of June 30, 2015.
He further stated that supplementary grants amounting to Rs 6 billion had been released to maintain law and order situation in the province. The government would have to increase of Rs 6 billion under the head of block allocation, he added.
He said released funds in addition to block allocation making the total financial outlay of Rs 11 billion during 2014-15.
Additional IGP (Finance) Sohail was of the view that priority regarding allocation of resource was the missing link. He said a priority is being given to inducting new units of police, while the already existing units are being ignored. He said the police have generated Rs 317 million through auctioning of 7,000 vehicles and the amount has been deposited to the provincial exchequer.
The police have not been given funds to procure the replacement vehicles, he maintained.
DIG Elite Force & SPU Muhammad Tahir informed the meeting that keeping in view the enhancement of proposed recruitment from 6,000 to 10,000 by Chief Minister Punjab, 8,000 constables shall now be recruited in the SPU. The recurring cost of maintenance of manpower shall be Rs 3,400 million, he added. He was of the view that police could train only 4,000 newly inducted recruits, if training of other police wings is stopped.
Keeping in view the briefing given by the DIG Elite Force, the cabinet sub-committee on law and order decided that service rules about personnel of SPU should be framed immediately and be submitted to the Regulation Wing of the S&GAD. Moreover the case about the training capacity of police at the Elite Force Training School should be forwarded to the Chief Minister and solicit the orders with respect of decrease in the proposed induction from 10,000 to 6,000 recruits.