Funding for Police Capacity Building Extended
Image Courtesy Kerala Police Website
The Government of India has approved continuation of umbrella scheme of Modernisation of Police Forces (MPF).
As per the Constitution, ‘Police’ and ‘law and order’ fall under the category of subjects within the domain of the State as per Entry 2 of List II of the VIIth Schedule in the Constitution of India.
Thus, the principal responsibility for managing these subjects lies with the State Governments.
However, the States have not been able to fully modernize and equip their police forces upto the desired level due to financial constraints.
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been supplementing the efforts and resources of the States, from time to time, by implementing the Scheme for Modernisation of State Police Forces (MPF Scheme) since 1969-70.
The objective of the scheme is to gradually reduce the dependence of the State Governments on the Army and the Central Armed Police Forces to control internal security and law and order situations by equipping the State Police Forces adequately and strengthening their training infrastructure.
The focus of the scheme is to strengthen police infrastructure at cutting edge level by construction of secure police stations, training centres, police housing (residential), equipping the police stations with the required mobility, modern weaponry, communication equipment and forensic set-up etc.
The Government has now approved continuation of umbrella scheme of Modernisation of Police Forces (MPF). This scheme comprises all relevant sub-schemes that contribute to modernization and improvement with a total Central financial outlay of Rs.26,275 crore. These as per a press release of the Ministry of Home Affairs on February 13 were approved by the Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi and initiated by the Home Minister Mr Amit Shah. Salient Features of the scheme are:
Modernisation of State police forces has a Central outlay of Rs.4,846 crore.
A central Scheme for Modernisation of Forensic Capacities with outlay of Rs.2,080.50 crore has been approved.
Central outlay of Rs.18,839 crore has been earmarked for security related expenditure for the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir, insurgency affected North Eastern States and Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas.
With the implementation of ‘National Policy and Action Plan’ for combating LWE, the LWE violence incidents have come down drastically. To further pursue this accomplishment, six LWE related schemes with Central outlay of Rs.8,689 crore have been approved.
These schemes include Special Central Assistance (SCA) to Most LWE Affected Districts & Districts of Concern to consolidate the gains. For raising of India Reserve Battalions/Specialised India Reserve Battalions, Central outlay of Rs.350 crore has been approved. Central sector scheme of ‘Assistance to States & Union Territories for Narcotics Control with outlay of Rs.50 crore has been continued.