EXPENDITURE ON POLICE FORCES BY STATES

The Union Cabinet last week approved the implementation of an umbrella scheme for the Modern is at ion of Police Forces( M PF) with an allocation of ~25,060 cr ore for the 2017-18 to 2019-20period. The MPF scheme is implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs in order to supplement resources of states to improve their police infrastructure. Funds from the MP Fare typically used for construction of police stations and provision of modern weapon ry, surveillance and communication equipment. Between 2009 and 2015, states on ana vera g eu til is ed 55% of the funds allocated forth e-MPF scheme by the central government. The hig he stu ti lisa ti on was witnessed in 2013-14 when 86% of the modern is at ion funds were used. In 2015-16, of the total allocation of ~9,203 cr ore for modern is at ion, only 14 percent (~1,330 cro re) was utilise d by states, with the remaining 86% remained unspent. In addition to funds received from the Centre, state governments also allocate funds to spend on police forces in their state. During 2015-16, most states proposed to spend 2-5% of their state budget son the police. Only four states proposed to spend more than five percent on the police. These were Ma nip ur (8.7% of the total state budget ), Nagaland(7.2%), Punjab (5.8%) and Jam mu and Kashmir (5.2%). States such as Gujarat, K ar nat aka and O dish a allocated the lowest share.