Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Monday said the ongoing police modernisation drive would lose momentum and perhaps become unsustainable if the Union government stuck to its decision to reduce Kerala’s share in the national budgetary outlay to make the State police forces contemporary.
Inaugurating the newly constructed administrative block at the City Police Commissioner’s Office here, Mr. Balakrishnan said the Centre in the past allocated funds to States to modernise their police forces in proportion to their respective population.
However, this practice had changed recently. Kerala accounted for three per cent of the country’s population. Going by this percentage, Kerala was entitled to Rs. 48 crore out of the Rs. 1,600 crore set aside by the Union government for police modernisation. Instead, the Centre had allocated only Rs.32 crore to the State police. The reason it cited was that Kerala did not face terrorist threats, law and order issues and was better policed than many other States.
Mr. Balakrishnan said the government was planning a high-rise ‘Police Complex’ in Kochi. It would soon set up a centre to conduct ‘narco-analysis’ test on crime suspects at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital. The government has created 24 posts for scientists at the State Forensic Sciences Laboratory (SFSL) here. The SFSL will soon be equipped to carry out DNA tests and cyber forensic analysis. The Minister asked ministerial staff members not to unnecessarily delay the retirement benefits of senior police personnel. He said complaints in this regard would be treated seriously.
Director General of Police Jacob Punnoose, Additional Director General of Police P. Chandrasekharan, A. Hemachandran, Sreelekha and Ananthakrishnan, Inspectors General and City Police Commissioner Ajith Kumar were present.
