Union Budget 2024: Home ministry gets over 20 lakh crores

The Ministry of Home Affairs has been allocated Rs 202868.70 crore as part of the interim budget 2024–25 on Thursday; the paramilitary forces, such as the CRPF, BSF, and CISF, received the largest portion of the funding. While the police force, which includes paramilitary forces, received Rs 132345.47 crore, Jammu and Kashmir, which became a Union Territory in 2019 following the repeal of Article 370 and the state’s bifurcation, received Rs 37277.74 crore. Ladakh received INR 5958 crore, Andaman and Nicobar Islands received INR 5866.37 crore, Chandigarh received INR 5862.62 crore, Puducherry received INR 3269.00 crore, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Dama and Diu received INR 2648.97 crore, Lakshadweep received INR 1490.10 crore, and Delhi received INR 1168.01. A sum of Rs 1248.91 crore was given to cabinet under which the expenditure on council of ministers, cabinet secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office, hospitality and entertainment of the government come. Among the paramilitary forces, Rs 32809.65 crore was given to the CRPF from a revised estimate of Rs 31389.04 crore in 2023-24, Rs 25027.52 crore to the BSF (Rs 25038.68 crore in 2023-24), Rs 13655.84 crore to CISF (Rs 12929.85 crore), Rs 8253.53 crore to ITBP (Rs 8203.68 crore in 2023-24), Rs 8485.77 crore to SSB (Rs 8435.68 crore in 2023-24) and Rs 7368.33 crore to the Assam Rifles (Rs 7276.29 crore in 2023-24). The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is mostly deployed for internal security duties, operations against terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, Naxals in central and eastern India and the insurgents in the Northeast. The Border Security Force (BSF) mostly guards the Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangladesh borders besides it is also deployed internal security duties. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) guards vital installations like nuclear plants, airports, metro networks. The Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) guards the Sino-Indian border, the Shashastra Seema Bal (SSB) guards the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders, the Assam Rifles protects India’s border with Myanmar. While the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has been allocated Rs 3195.09 crore (Rs 3268.94 crore in 2023-24), Rs 11177.50 crore to the Delhi Police (Rs 11940.33 crore in 2023-24), Rs 506.32 crore to the Special Protection Group (SPG) (Rs 446.83 crore in 2023-24). The IB is India’s internal intelligence agency, the Delhi Police guards the national capital and the SPG provides the security to the Prime Minister. The budget allocated Rs 3199.62 crore for security related expenditure and Special Infrastructure Scheme for Left Wing Extremist Areas, Rs 335.00 crore for Border Area Development Programme, Rs 214.44 crore for safe city projects, and Rs 330.00 crore for Land Port Authority of India. (with inputs from PTI)