Indian Punjab spends 41% more on policing than Pakistani Punjab

Lahore has a ratio of 1 policeman per 413 people, while Delhi has a far better ratio of 1:198

ISLAMABAD: At a time when countries around the world are strengthening their security forces, the Punjab government is spending 41% lesser amount on the security of its people in comparison with that of India, which has a comparatively lower population and hardly any acts of terrorism on its soil.

According to official documents of the Punjab Home Department, with a population of 110 million, Punjab is spending $0.87 billion on its police force, while Indian East Punjab invests $0.41 billion for the security of 27 million people.



The official figures clearly indicate that if Indian Punjab had a population of 110 million like ours, then its spending on police force would have escalated by 41% to $1.23 billion.

Even the London police spend $6.56 billion on a population of 8.7 million, stated the documents.

The ratio of Punjab’s police and population is at 1:563, which means only one personnel is available for 563 persons, while as per Police Rules 1934, the ratio should be 1:450, maintained the documents.

In this connection, Lahore has a ratio of 1:413, while Delhi has a far better ratio of 1:198 and Mumbai’s statistics in this connection stand at 1:294.

London’s ratio stands at 1:157 in this context, the documents further elaborated.

The provincial government has allocated Rs95.128 billion in the current fiscal budget for the police against the demand of Rs102.767 billion, reflecting a difference of Rs7.639 billion.

The documents further revealed that only 47% of the police were available for crime management, operation and investigation, while 20% of its strength was engaged in matters concerning security.

Only 2.0% were of Special Branch and again 2.0% were deployed at training institutions.

The total police strength of Punjab stands at 204,892 as against a massive population of 110 million.



The documents also revealed that the situation regarding ‘Public Order’ deteriorated in 2016 in comparison with 2015. However, it seemed to have improved a bit during the ongoing year as compared with the previous year.

The documents also stated that the total number of cases regarding matters of ‘Public Order’ declined by 24% to 5,361 during 10 months of 2017 as against 7,011 cases registered during the same period of 2016. The Public Order cases included protest demonstrations, rallies, road blocks, sit-ins, strikes and property damage.