Badal demands Rs100 crore budget for state police modernisation

Terming the Central's fund for modernisation of state police as "insufficient", Punjab's
deputy chief mnister Sukhbir Badal today demanded annual budget of at least Rs100 crore for overall modernisation of the state force.

"Earlier, Punjab was getting an annual budget of Rs64 crore, which was recently reduced to just Rs 25 crore, which is too low.  We need annual budget of at least Rs100 crore, so that police could be strengthened and modernised to meet any challenge and attempts of revival of terrorism", Badal, who also holds the Home portfolio, told reporters here, where he had come to attend a ceremony on the occasion of Police Commemoration Day.

Recently during the chief ministers' Conclave at New Delhi, almost every state demanded a hike in the fund given for up-gradation of the police, he revealed.

Revealing the efforts being made to strengthen the functioning of the state police, Badal said that recently it was decided that after every two months performance of all district police heads would be assessed on the basis of crime graph of the district.

Badal said that it has been decided to constitute a special wing of Punjab Police Commandos on the pattern of National Security Guard (NSG) and special training would be imparted to the personnel to meet any exigencies in any part of the state.

He revealed that a proposal has been sent to the Union Home minister for the constitution of five more battalions of IRB.