Budget 2012-13: Home Ministry gets Rs 54,449 crore

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry today got Rs 54,449 crore in the General Budget, a two per cent cut than last year, with an emphasis to provide new residential quarters and barracks for Central Armed Police Forces personnel.

However, the Budget for 2012-13 presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha, did not allocate any separate funds for the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre, whose fate still remains uncertain following strong objections from non-Congress chief ministers citing infringement of states' powers.

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On Monday, addressing the joint sitting of Parliament, President Pratibha Patil said NCTC aims to improve India's capability to counter internal security threats.

Mukherjee said the government was making efforts to increase the availability of residential quarters to Forces and announced that it envisages to construct nearly 4,000 such quarters for CAPF for which Rs 1,185 crore is allocated.

A provision of Rs 3,280 crore for 2012-13 has also been made for construction of office buildings including land acquisition and barracks to accommodate 27,000 personnel.

The National Intelligence Grid, another pet project of Home Minister P Chidambaram, like the NCTC, got Rs 364.80 crore in this year's Budget, a huge jump from last year's Rs 27.96 crore.

The country's largest paramilitary force CRPF received Rs 9,307.10 crore in the 2012-13 Budget in comparison to last year's 8762.53 crore, while the border guarding force BSF received 8400.58 crore from Rs 8006.37 crore last year.

The Budget 2011-12 had allocated Rs 55,469 crore to the Home Ministry.