LAHORE, June 17: The Punjab government has set aside Rs93,718.858 million (Rs93.72 billion) for public order and safety measures in budget 2013-14 which is 11,854.594 million or 12.6 per cent more than the last year allocation.
The government had allocated Rs81,864.264 million for 2012-13 and revised the amount to Rs84,208.161 million.
However, the government failed to utilise the allocations under the heads of law courts, fire protection and administration of public order.
The public order and safety affairs comprises expenditures on courts of law, police, prisons, relief and crisis management including fire protection, anti-corruption establishment/economic crimes, and civil defence.
Of total allocations, police will get 76.04 per cent major chunk followed by law courts 11.2 per cent, administration of public order 6.42 per cent, prison administration and operation 6.23 per cent and fire protection 0.06 per cent.
Allocation for police has been increased from 62,251.774 million in FY-13 to Rs71,305.410 million in FY-14, showing an increase of 12.7 per cent.
Allocation for law courts though has been increased from 9,416.002 million in 2012-13 to Rs10,500.564 million in 2013-14 with 10.3 per cent increase, the government only spent Rs8,941.691 million in the outgoing fiscal which is Rs474.311 million short of total allocation.
Prisons administration and operation will get Rs5,839.796 million in next fiscal against Rs5,364.201 million in 2012-13 with 8.1 per cent increasing ratio.
The government has also increased amount for administration of public order from Rs4,781.115 million in 2012-13 to Rs6,015.477 million in 2013-14. The increase in terms of percentage is 20.5. But the government spent only Rs4,199.896 million in 2012-13 which is short of Rs581.219 million.
The fire protection will get Rs57.611 million in next fiscal against Rs51.172 million allocated in 2012-13 with increasing ratio is 11.17 per cent. The government had not prioritised the fire safety and spent only Rs49.710 million in outgoing fiscal which is Rs1.462 million short of allocation.
On the other hand, police and prisons spent Rs3,340.291 million and Rs60.598 million more than the allocations.
According to budget document, an amount of Rs1,000 million is a block allocation which is aimed at providing resources for creation of 9,500 new posts in law courts including 1,013 posts of civil judges and additional sessions judges in Punjab in accordance with the National Judicial Policy.
Meanwhile, Punjab Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, in his budget speech, announced completing the project of model police stations across the province on a fast-track basis. He said 100 police stations had already achieved the status of MPSs under the project aimed at changing police station culture.
He said the government had also planned to impart state-of-the art training to police in association with Turkey and United Arab Emirates and the establishment of Police School of Information and Analysis was a step in that direction.