File photo of officials collecting data as part of the 2011 census. , Photo Credit: Murali Kumar
in a sign that census exercise – Was to be completed in 2021, but Delayed due to COVID-19 – May not be conducted in 2023-24, Union Budget allocation for Census Survey and Statistics head reduced to ₹1,565 crore from ₹3,676 crore allocated in 2022-23. The last census was held in 2011.
Overall, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been allocated Rs 1.96 lakh crore in Budget 2023-24, which is 5% higher than the nearly Rs 1.86 lakh crore allocated in the current fiscal.
In her budget speech on Wednesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that states should spend the entire fifty-year loan given to them on capital expenditure within the 2023-24 financial year. He said parts of the outlay would be allocated for scrapping old government vehicles and for housing for police personnel over or above police stations.
Intelligence Database Funding
allocation for National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) has more than doubled, growing by 128% from ₹87.77 crore in 2022-23 to ₹200.53 crore in the coming year. NATGRID is a one-stop destination for security and intelligence agencies to access databases related to immigration entry and exit and access banking and telephone details of terror and crime suspects, using a “secure platform”. The Intelligence Bureau has seen a 7% increase in 2023-24 with an allocation of ₹3,418 crore.
A budget of Rs 93.26 crore has been allocated to the Department of Official Language, which promotes the use of Hindi language in official work.
The budgetary allocation for the Special Security Group, which provides security cover only to the Prime Minister of India, has increased by 12% from ₹385 crore to ₹433 crore.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force, deployed along the 3,488-km border with China, has seen an increase in its budget from Rs 7,461 crore in the current financial year to Rs 8,097 crore in the next financial year.
Managing Border Infra Movement
The budget for Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking System (IVFRT) has been increased by 30% from ₹175 crore to ₹229 crore. The main objective of IVFRT is to develop and implement a secure and integrated service delivery framework that facilitates legitimate travelers while strengthening security.
Border infrastructure and management has seen a 29% increase in its budget, from ₹2,744 crore in 2022-23 to ₹3,545 crore in 2023-24. The provision has been allocated for installation of barbed wire fencing, construction of roads, inspection posts and border outposts, installation of floodlights, induction of hi-tech surveillance along the borders of Bangladesh and Pakistan and such other construction activities along India’s international borders. has gone.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center has been allocated ₹94 crore, which is almost 60% more than the ₹59 crore allocated last year.
A major chunk of the budget, totaling ₹2,092 crore, has been reserved for “research”, which is almost 50% higher than the revised estimate of ₹1,400 crore for 2021-22.
The allocation for modernization of the Central Armed Police Forces, which was introduced as a budget item in 2022-23, has come down by over 18% to ₹202 crore from the earlier allocated ₹248 crore.