Finance Minister AMA Muhit placed a traditional budget for police department yesterday, not mentioning any step for its reform or ensuring transparency and accountability though rights bodies and civil societies made repeated appeals in this regard.
The proposed budget allocation for the home ministry is Tk 7,720 crore, an increase of Tk 811 crore from last year's Tk 6,909 crore.
Contrary to crime statistics of police headquarters, Muhith, in his budget speech, claimed that the last two years of the government saw a remarkable improvement in the law and order situation.
The statistics say a total of 162,898 criminal incidents including murder, robbery, and kidnapping took place in 2010, which is 5,790 more than in 2009 and 4,919 more than in 2008.
Muhith also said the government would recruit 36,000 more police personnel and procure vehicles and modern telecommunication and security equipment to strengthen police activities.
Law and order experts opined that to ensure accountability, transparency and check culture of impunity among police, national budget should have adequate allocation for scientific or hard evidence based investigation.
Former adviser to a caretaker government ASM Shahjahan, also a former inspector general of police, said, “The government should emphasise on improving operational condition of police before increasing their numbers or setting up more police stations.”
He added that lack of scientific and forensic equipment force investigators to opt for torturing arrestees to realise confessional statements, violating human rights.