National Intelligence Grid gets lion's share in Home Ministry allotments

Though the UPA government's internal security concerns and its intention to turn the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) into reality had found mention in President Pratibha Devisingh Patil's address to the joint sitting of Parliament, the budget proposals for 2012-13 have inflicted a minor cut in the allocations made to the Home Ministry. Presenting the budget in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee gave the Home Ministry Rs 54,449 crore, against Rs. 55,469 crore allocated to the Ministry in the 2011-12 budget. This time around, the budget has emphasised on constructing nearly 4,000 new residential quarters and barracks for the central armed police forces personnel for which an allocation of Rs. 1,185 crore has been made. However, the budget proposals have not earmarked any separate funds for the NCTC whose fate still remains uncertain in the wake of strong objections raised by nearly a dozen non-Congress Chief Ministers, citing encroachment on the States' powers and turf. In her address on Monday, the President said the NCTC aimed at improving India's capability to counter internal security threats. The budget has also made a provision of Rs 3,280 crore for the construction of office buildings, including land acquisition and barracks to accommodate 27,000 personnel. However, another pet project of Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid), got Rs 364.80 crore, a huge increase from last year's Rs 27.96 crore. It aims to link data bases as an input in combating terrorist and intends to create a facility to improve the capability to counter internal security threats. The Intelligence Bureau (IB), which got Rs. 956.96 crore in 2011-12, has been allocated Rs. 1,073 crore. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has got Rs 9,307.10 crore now, compared to last year's Rs. 8,762.53 crore, while the Border Security Force (BSF) got Rs. 8,400.58 crore. It was Rs 8,006.37 crore last year. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which guards most of the public sector units as well as airports, got Rs 3564.01 crore, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Rs. 2,432.75 crore and the Assam Rifles Rs 2,966.55 crore. An allocation of Rs. 501.20 crore has been made to the elite “Black Cat” commando force of the National Security Guard (NSG), while the recently set-up National Investigation Agency got Rs 64.84 crore. The budget has made an allocation of Rs. 50 crore for relief and rehabilitation of repatriates from Sri Lanka and Rs 100 crore for relief and rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants. It has proposed an allocation of Rs 2108.76 crore for census surveys and statistics, Rs 632.48 crore for disaster management and Rs 150 crore as special industry initiative for Jammu and Kashmir. An amount of Rs 986 crore has been earmarked for border management that include India-Pakistan and India-China border works and erection of barbed wire fencing along the border with Bangladesh. The allocation for the Special Protection Group (SPG), which provides the proximate security to the Prime Minister and other VVIPs, has been slashed by about Rs 35 crore to Rs 351 crore for the new fiscal. The budgetary proposals for the SPG have been pegged at Rs 351 crore for 2012-13, against the revised expenditure of Rs 385.95 crore during 2011-12. For the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister's Office and tour expenses by ministers, the budget has made an allocation of Rs. 388.09 crore, against a revised estimate of Rs. 606.60 crore in 2011-12.