Interim Budget 2014: Nirbhaya Fund gets additional Rs 1,000 crore in budget

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday allocated Rs 1,000 crore to the Nirbhaya Fund for the safety and empowerment of women.

“In order to make it clear that the Nirbhaya Fund will be a prominent fund, I intend to declare the grant ofRs 1,000 crore as non-lapsable and in order to support more proposals, I propose to contribute to the fund another Rs 1,000 crore next year,” Chidambaram said while presenting the interim budget in Parliament. The Rs 1,000-crore Nirbhaya Fund was announced in last year’s Union Budget as a tribute to a gang-rape victim who died of her injuries.

Chidambaram said the Cabinet has already cleared two proposals that will receive support from the fund. Last month, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved aRs 1,405-crore project to monitor public transport and provide alarm buttons for alerting authorities. The project entails installing closed-circuit televisions and GPS devices in public transport vehicles.

Public transport vehicles in cities with a population of over 1 million must install the GPS devices by February 20. Last September, the ministry of women & child welfare had announced a plan under the Nirbhaya Fund for the protection of vulnerable women.

Under the project, titled ‘Shubh’, the government will provide 100 per cent financial assistance to state governments and Union Territories for the remaining tenure of the Plan period to implement the various components of the scheme in a public-private partnership model.