Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the Union Budget for the Financial Year 2011-12 in Parliament on Monday. He also sanctioned around Rs 55,469 crore to the Central Home Ministry for security and law enforcement purposes.He also proposed Rs.384 crore for the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) project and Rs.909.92 crore for the Intelligence Bureau. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been allotted Rs.55.68 crore for its functioning.
Finance Minister also proposed to earmark Rs.125 crore for Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking (IVFRT). This project intends to develop a secure and integrated service delivery framework that facilitates legitimate travellers without compromising on national security.
Similarly, a sum of Rs.39.75 crore has been sanctioned for the National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid). Natgrid is a project that would provide real time information sharing among various intelligence agencies.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram was happy and contended with the budget allocation to his Ministry. He analysed the budget as a whole as a “balance one”. According to Chidambaram, Finance Minister has focused on high growth through investment augmentation and by providing for larger financial resources to education, health and security.
Now the financial resources are at place and Home Ministry is required to implement its ambitious projects one by one and in a timely manner. The only factor that Chidambaram must keep in mind is that “constitutional issues” are resolved in an appropriate and timely manner.
Projects like Natgrid, CCTNS, National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Central Monitoring System (CMS), etc must be implemented in a constitutionally sound manner.
Indian Government in general and Home Ministry in particular must maintain a delicate and constitutional balance between National Security and Constitutional Rights. Giving priority of one over other would be counter productive and would be against National Interest.
I hope the year 2011 would be a good year for National Security of India and Chidambaram would successfully implement various National Security Projects of India.
