The Narendra Modi government has opened its purse strings for the home ministry in the Union budget 2022-23, with focus on improving the criminal justice delivery system by linking up e-databases of police, jails, courts and forensic science laboratories for speedy investigation of cases and delivery of justice.
In its budgetary allocation of Rs 1,85,776 crore, the Union home ministry has set aside Rs 590 crore for the inter-operable criminal justice system (ICJS), Rs 300 crore for modernisation of forensic capabilities, Rs 500 crore for modernisation of prisons and Rs 150 crore for emergency response system as “new schemes” and projects. The traditional heads of police, paramilitary forces and central agencies like the Intelligence Bureau also bagged a large share of the MHA’s budget which stands at the fourth position among central ministries.
Police and paramilitary have got Rs 1,17,687.99 crore while the IB has got increased budget allocation of Rs 3,168.36 crore, up from Rs 2,839 crore. The budget of Special Protection Group, which guards the prime minister, has seen a decrease to Rs 385.95 crore against Rs 429.05 crore last year.
The Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking, Modernisation of central forces, the stalled census operation, improvement of the BSF air wing and schemes for safety of women have also got attention.
However, the focus of the MHA’s budgetary provisions is integrating the crime and criminal tracking network and systems (CCTNS) with e-courts and e-prison databases with the ICJS. The home ministry is a key pillar in the ICJS initiative taken by the government in 2019 for seamless transfer of data and information for improving the criminal justice system in the country.
Going forward, the other pillars of the criminal justice system - Forensics, Prosecution, Juvenile homes and a nationwide Fingerprint data base of criminals - will be linked with it in a phased manner. The integration will be achieved by providing access to the Judiciary, Police and Prisons with robust facilities for retrieving criminal data; making national crime and criminal data searches easy and eventually using data analytics for preventive policing and faster delivery of justice.
Meanwhile, the traditional heads under which budgetary allocation has been substantial is Rs 200 crore for schemes for woman safety; Rs 3,768 crore for the Census operations and modernisation of police forces which saw a decreased allocation from Rs 2,803.11 to Rs 2,754.16 crore.
The paramilitary forces like CRPF, NSG, BSF, ITBP, CISF, Assam Rifles and SSB have got Rs 87,444.06 crore with the CRPF engaged in counter insurgency operations and law and offer duties getting Rs 29,324.92 crore, an increase from last year's Rs 26,197.9 crore. The BSF, deployed on the India-Pakistan and India-Bangladesh borders, has been given Rs 22,718.45 crore. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre is Rs 59 crore against Rs 69.6 crore. The budget of the Delhi police has been increased by 21 per cent with an allocation of Rs 10,096 as compared to Rs 8,338 crore in 2021-22. The focus is also the development of the newly carved out Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh with Rs 35,581 crore set aside for J&K towards hydroelectric projects and other infrastructure and Rs 5,958 crore for Ladakh which was the same in the last fiscal year.
