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12 April 2017
11 April 2017
Budgeting for the police
Budgeting for the police
Higher allocations by themselves are not enough, the structure of budgetary allocations can have an impact on police performance
As the law enforcement agency of the government and the first point of contact in the criminal justice system, the police is critical for sound law and order, and a good quality of life. There is perceptible dissatisfaction with policing in India today. It is often argued that poor resourcing is part of the problem, and that the police require a higher quantum of budgetary allocations.
While the police need to be well-resourced, higher allocations by themselves are not enough. The structure of budgetary allocations can have a disproportionate impact on the operations of the department, and consequently on police performance. It is, therefore, useful to analyse how police departments structure their budgets, and the manner in which the budgetary allocations are actually spent.
Our first example is that of Maharashtra Police. The data on budgets was collected from the Budget Estimation, Allocation and Monitoring System (BEAMS) of the department of finance under the government of Maharashtra. Our analysis suggests that budget outlays for the police only meet the establishment cost. Salary is the main component of budget, consuming almost 90% of the total allocation. The residual amount covers costs of domestic travel, maintenance of motor vehicles and petrol cost. Budgets, as they stand, barely allocate funds for operational expenses of running police stations, or maintenance costs for computer systems, arms and ammunition.
The analysis suggests that police budgets have focused solely on manpower. On an annual basis, budgets do not have allocations towards capacity building, and are not structured to achieve desired outcomes. The police also suffers from inadequate expenditure management. Expenses on items other than salary are not monitored frequently enough. Maharashtra Police recently launched an internal intelligence tool to monitor expenditure. The tool will track fund allocation and utilization across all units, i.e. districts, ranges and commissionerate under Maharashtra Police. The intelligence tool will also provide comparative metrics like expenditure per crime, per police station and per employee. While this is a step in the right direction and should be replicated by other states, its effects remain to be seen.
Our next example is that of spending on the modernization of police through grants. In the year 2000, an assessment of police infrastructure deficiency by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), a federal agency under the ministry of home affairs, estimated that Rs30,000 crore was needed over 10 years to fill the identified gaps in infrastructure.
Notably, the Modernisation of Police Forces Scheme to fund deficiency in state police infrastructure has been in existence since 1969-70, the cost of which is shared by the Centre and states. Annual allocations to this fund were raised substantially, following the BPR&D study. Since 2000, the focus has been to build secure police stations, increase the supply of police housing, improve forensic laboratory, equipment, training infrastructure, communication systems and mobility of the police force.
The scheme has had limited success. An impact evaluation of the scheme, conducted by consultants EY, for BPR&D in 2010, acknowledged the positive impact of the scheme, but stated that it “has been able to fill very limited gaps compared to the actual requirements of the police forces”. The assessment also pointed to inadequate training and lack of funds for repair and maintenance of assets created under the scheme. Despite the short supply of resources, the study found under-utilization of funds as a result of delays in release of funds and cumbersome asset-procurement processes.
The two examples demonstrate different problems with police budgets. Either funds are spent entirely on salaries, with little left for capacity building, or are underutilized even though they are not enough to begin with.
As with any budget, police budgets too need to be tied to outcomes. Broadly, the desired outcomes of policing are 1) safety and security of citizens; 2) collection of intelligence; 3) investigation of crime; and 4) sound public order. In the current form, budgets only fund salaries, and thus are not fully aligned to create conditions conducive for outcomes. First and foremost, aligning budgets to these outcomes will require outlays to fully cover the office or operating expenses of the police station. It is estimated that office or operation costs for running a police station in an urban area are around Rs5–6 lakh per year, while the figure for rural areas is between Rs4-5 lakh per year. This cost estimate covers expenses on any item of miscellaneous nature, such as stationery, translations, etc., while performing police duty.
The second input to achieve these outcomes is to build capacity within the police. This may be through focused training to keep pace with the changing nature of crime and prevention techniques, or the creation of IT infrastructure for tracking cases to tackle delays due to mounting pendency. It will also require investment in management techniques, soft skills, new technology, and building of databases to allow for seamless access to information, among other heads.
A dynamic process of evaluating the needs of effective policing, and aligning the budgets accordingly is an important step towards achieving a well-functioning police
Batteries developed by Isro may be used in India’s electric vehicles
Batteries developed by Isro may be used in India’s electric vehicles
The government is planning to transfer the battery technology to companies for commercial production
The Automotive Research Association of India (Arai) has successfully tested lithium-ion batteries developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre for use in two- and three-wheelers, a development that is expected to provide a fillip to India’s electric vehicles (EV) push.
The government is now planning to transfer the technology to companies for commercial production of these batteries, and will also set up a central agency to lead the country’s EV programme. This was decided at a meeting chaired by road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday.
India’s initiatives on solar energy and electric vehicles are closely linked. The country plans to generate 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2022. Of this, 100GW is to come from solar power projects. With storage being the next frontier for India’s clean energy push, the batteries in EVs offer a potential solution.
India’s EV programme would help with grid balancing, besides complementing the government’s push for solar power, which is generated during the day and can be stored in EV batteries.
“The technology should be transferred to companies in the private or public sector or joint ventures for commercial production of batteries. Bhel (Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd) is interested, but more companies should be roped in,” a government official said, requesting anonymity.
Bhel is exploring the feasibility of manufacturing cells and batteries with technology developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) for application in electric vehicles, as reported by Mint on 31 March. Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre is part of Isro.
Enthused by the market potential for EVs in India, state-owned firms such as Bhel, Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd (PGCIL) and NTPC Ltd are looking at new businesses catering to the space.
While Bhel, India’s largest power generation equipment maker, wants to manufacture electric vehicles such as buses, cars, two-wheelers and boats, PGCIL, the power transmission utility responsible for establishing green energy transmission corridors, is considering setting up charging stations for EVs.
Also, Vedanta Resources Plc is firming up its clean energy plans for India, encouraged by the opportunities offered by the country’s growing green economy. As part of the strategy, the firm is looking at developing battery storage solutions.
“The need for bringing all issues related to non-polluting vehicles under one agency was also pointed out. At present, there are multiple agencies involved,” added the official cited earlier.
“EV on a clean fuel source is a better option for India. It is very important to have an enabling provision and one agency to spearhead the programme. There should also be continuous innovation to bring the cost of battery down and enabling support for infrastructure such as charging stations. It should be available across the country within a definitive time frame in order for EVs to take off as a mass product,” said Abdul Majeed, partner and national auto practice leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Queries emailed to cabinet secretariat, ministries of road transport and highways, Isro and the department of space late on Sunday evening remained unanswered. Arai director Rashmi Urdhwareshe didn’t respond to phone calls or a text message.
The Friday meeting was also attended by cabinet secretary P.K. Sinha, road transport and highways secretary Sanjay Mitra, secretary in department of space Alur Seelin Kiran Kumar, director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre K. Sivan and Arai’s Urdhwareshe.
Any shift to electric vehicles will help reduce pollution and fuel imports. India’s energy import bill is expected to double from around $150 billion to $300 billion by 2030. The government has been trying to push sales of electric vehicles and has set an ambitious target of selling six million by 2020.
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