LAHORE – The Punjab Police have requested for an amount of Rs70 billion in the forthcoming provincial budget under the heads of ‘Salaries’, ‘Development Projects’, ‘Fuel’, ‘Uniforms’, ‘Shaheed Fund’ and ‘Other Wings of the Force’.
According to a well-placed source, the Welfare and Finance Wing of the Police has requested for an amount of Rs64 billion as permanent funds and Rs6 billion as temporary funds in the Punjab Budget 2012-13.
The source said that high-ups of the department feared that the PML-N-led provincial government would turn down their request for the initiation of several important projects and operation of different wings of the force, as happened in the ongoing budget ending on June 30.
The provincial government earmarked Rs59 billion (including both permanent and temporary funds) for the Police Department in the Budget 2011-12, but no allocation was made for the Shaheed Fund and CPO Fuel Fund. Similarly, only Rs530 million were earmarked for development projects against the department’s request of over Rs3 billion and only Rs100 million were earmarked for fuel against the department’s request of Rs750 billion.
More important, only Rs400 million were earmarked for ‘Cost of Investigation’ in the ongoing budget. “The provincial government expects the Police to investigate all the registered cases in this meager budget. For the record, 419,365 cases were registered at more than 750 police stations of Punjab in 2011,” an SSP informed on condition of anonymity. He added that the shortage of budget was the main reason for the investigation officers accepting bribe from the accused or even victims.
Likewise, the Punjab Police had requested for an amount of Rs700 million for the payment of gas bills in the ongoing budget, but was provided with only Rs2 million.
Additional Inspector General (Welfare and Finance) Sarmad Saeed Khan told TheNation that the department had requested for an amount of Rs70 billion in the Punjab Budget 2012-13. According to the proposal, the Police have requested for Rs56.71 billion under the head of ‘Salaries’, Rs0.1 billion under the head of ‘Shaheed Fund’, Rs2.98 billion under the head of ‘Development Projects’, Rs0.213 billion under the head of ‘Cost of Investigation’, Rs2.27 billion under the head of ‘Training’, Rs4.90 billion under the head of ‘Petrol’, Rs1.33 billion under the head of ‘Physical Assets’ and Rs0.855 billion under the head of ‘Repair and Maintenance’.
Saeed said that over 85 per cent of the total budget was eaten up by the salaries. “The trainees (from constables to inspectors) are given almost free food and only Rs100 daily are provided for the same. Similarly, when the force is not provided with budget for a scheme, then the department uses the development funds,” he added.
The additional inspector general further said that though Rs70 billion seemed to be a big amount, it only meant that Rs77 would be spent on the protection of each citizen per year across Punjab.