Rs172.5 billion allocated for law and order in Punjab budget

Development budget for police set at Rs1.69 billion for 147 schemes

LAHORE:

Punjab government has allocated Rs172.5 billion under the head of law and order for the fiscal year 2020-2021.

During the last fiscal year, Rs178 billion was allocated under the ‘Public Order and Safety Affairs’ head.

Out of Rs172.5 billion, Rs119 billion was allocated for police as compared to last year’s figure of Rs117.13 billion.

As far as development budget for police is concerned, only Rs1.69 billion has been allocated for 147 schemes of the department. The amount will be spent on 142 ongoing and five new schemes. They include 12 housing and 135 office projects.

For jails, only Rs600 million development budget has been allocated for 21 schemes. Of these, 18 are ongoing schemes and three new ones. Funds have been allocated for two ongoing and two new housing schemes of the department.

Under the head of judiciary, Rs2.1 billion has been allocated for 65 development schemes. They include 29 new schemes and 36 ongoing ones. Of the schemes, 15 are related to housing and 50 to office construction.

The provincial government set aside only Rs500 million for the Punjab Emergency Service (PES), commonly known as Rescue 1122. The spending was Rs300 million less than the allocation for the previous fiscal year.

A major chunk of the allocation, Rs457 million, will be spent on 19 ongoing schemes, while Rs43 million will be spent on two new schemes.

The schemes include the establishment of a Rescue 1122 station at Kartarpur Corridor in Narowal district, provision of motorcycle ambulance service in remaining 27 districts of Punjab, capacity building of emergency services in Punjab (Phase II) and establishment of emergency service in 62 remaining tehsils (Phase-III).

Punjab government allocated Rs4.16 billion for the initiation of Rescue 1122 service in the remaining tehsils and Rs1.03 billion for the motorcycle ambulance service in 27 districts.

Moreover, the schemes also include launching of Rescue 1122 services at Barthi and Fazal Katch, Taunsa tehsil, Dera Ghazi Khan, at Zahir Pir in Khanpur tehsil, Rahim Yar Khan district, in Khokhran, Multan, and at sub tehsil headquarters Vehova in Taunsa, Dera Ghazi Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2020.