LAHORE: Despite being the second most affected department from the coronavirus after the Punjab health department, the Punjab government has paid a little heed to the grievances of Punjab police as it increased its budget merely by 2.8 percent from Rs 115.633 billion to Rs 119.122 billion in its Annual Development Programme (ADP) for 2020-21.
On the other hand, the Punjab government slashed the overall budget under the "public order and safety affairs" head that include high courts, lower judiciary, fire protection (civil defence), Punjab prisons and administration of public order (rescue and emergency services).
The total allocation under the public order and safety affairs stands at Rs 171.043 billion against the last year's allocation of Rs 176.703 billion.
As per the budget document, the government has earmarked Rs 27.738 billion for high courts and lower judiciary against the previous allocation of Rs 28.570 billion. Similarly, the government also cut down the budget for the civil defence from Rs 0.710 billion to Rs 0.804 billion.
For the rescue and emergency services, the government drastically reduced its budget under this head and proposed a sum of Rs 13.623 billion as compared to the last year's allocation of Rs 21.034 billion.
"While security remains highly priced, it is expected that the rising costs of policing shall address the overt or covert reasons for increasing crime rates, forestall possible security disasters and sustain reduction in the crime rate in general," the document reads.
In addition to the social costs of crimes, poor security directly translates into stalled economic growth. The general, accepted notion is that a hike in crime rate post-Covid socio economic downturn cannot be ruled out, it adds.
"However, it may be hard to determine the economic impact of an improved security system through higher expenditure on law enforcement services, but the Punjab government has consistently provided unflinching financial support to the public order and safety affairs."
In the financial year 2019-20, the budget says that the total outlay for corrective and judicial functions, policing, fire protection, prison administration and emergency services was at 5 percent.
The document reads that despite the financial stress, the Punjab government has yet again expressed its resolve and commitment towards "greater public sense of security" for citizens and business through "increased" spending on law and order.
It says that the Punjab government aims to develop indicators that can assess the value of policing - a legitimate demand generated by the current financial crisis. Spending on judicial and policing services is expected to safeguard economic affairs and social sector public investments and hence the expectation for a sizable return on security investment grows, it concludes.
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