NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry on Thursday went into fire-fighting mode after a letter written by it to all states was revealed which said the Finance Ministry has denied it an additional Rs 1500 crore allocation for police modernization funds at the Revised Expenditure (RE) stage.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh had earlier last year pushed for the Modernisation of Police Forces (MPF) Scheme funds to be doubled from Rs 1500 crore to Rs 3000 crore. The same was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his maiden budget speech.
"The additional allocation of Rs 1500 crore as per Budget 2014-15 announcement has not been provided under the MPF Scheme at RE stage. Therefore, additional state action plans received from various states will not be considered during the current financial year," says the Home Ministry letter of December 29 written to Director General of Police (DGPs) and Principal Home Secretaries of all states and marked to the Union Home Secretary and all Joint Secretaries in Home Ministry. This letter was duly uploaded on the Home Ministry website on Thursday.
When asked about the reasons for the denial of the additional funds, a Home Ministry spokesperson told ET that the RE decisions had "still not been communicated" to the Home Ministry. "There seems to be some mistake in the letter...the same is being withdrawn from the website. The assumption about the funds not being provided at RE stage may be based on discussions," the spokesperson said. The letter however clearly says that the additional action plans submitted by various states for the MPF fund "will not be considered during the current financial year and may be merged/absorbed in the action plans for 2015-16". A government source said non-submission of plans by some states or the non-utilisation of the existing grant by states may be a factor for the Finance Ministry to not clear the additional grant this year.
The Home Ministry in a letter to all states on September 4 had informed them that the Finance Minister in his budget speech had proposed to enhance the allocation for the MPF Scheme from a sum of Rs 1500 crore to Rs 3000 crore during 2014-15. "However, the enhanced allocation may be made available at RE 2014-15, provided the states are able to provide Utilisation certificates for the previous releases and the allocation already made during 2014-15 is fully released to states," the September 4 letter said. In another letter to states on October 22, the Home Ministry had said that proposals from many states on how to spend the additional funds were still to be received. "It may be stated that any further delay in submission of the proposals for 2014-15 may adversely impact the approval process/timelines and affect the timely release of funds," the Home Ministry wrote on October 22 to all states.
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