Siddarth Sethia
The Karnataka government has announced a series of measures to strengthen policing, improve surveillance and tackle drug abuse as part of its latest budget proposals.
To enhance mobility for law enforcement and improve public security, new vehicles worth ₹75 crore will be provided to the Home Department for sensitive surveillance and policing duties.
Under the Centrally Sponsored Police Modernisation Scheme, an action plan worth ₹354 crore—including both Central and State shares—has been formulated to equip the police with advanced communication devices, forensic equipment,CCTV systems,body-worn cameras, anti-drone systems,drones and other modern tools.
The state government will provide ₹142 crore as its share for the initiative.
The government also announced that the Anti-Narcotics Task Force will be strengthened with an allocation of ₹10 crore,reinforcing the state’s zero-tolerance policy towards drugs and its goal of making Karnataka a drug-free state.
To curb hate speech and prevent potential communal disturbances,a Special Task Force has been established in the state to maintain communal harmony.
At present,three companies of the task force are operational in Udupi,Shivamogga and Dakshina Kannada districts.
In addition,to tackle growing traffic congestion in Bengaluru,the government will develop an integrated digital traffic management platform at a cost of ₹25 crore.
The platform will collect and analyse data maintained separately by different traffic management agencies to help streamline traffic flow and ensure smoother movement across the city.
Souces said that the department is happy to invest more on technology rather than recruitment of police personnel as it was moving towards technology driven enforcement and surveillance .
In addition to this is one time investment and will not burden state exchequer .
