The Gujarat Police has guns but does not have bullets to fire from it, Minister of State for Home Amit Shah said in the state assembly on Friday, while replying to a question pertaining to police modernisation.
"We have been asking for bullets for our police force since last three years but we have got nothing," Shah said during discussion on 'Modernisation of Police Fund (MPF)' raised by BJP MLA Nanu Vanani from Surat (North).
"The situation is such that we do not have enough bullets for our policemen to practice. We have gun but no bullets to fire from it," he added.
Gujarat is high on terror radar and it had witnessed serial blasts in July 2008, in which 57 people were killed.
The minister also lamented the fact that the Union government has reduced allocation under MPF from Rs 119.53- crore in 2000-01 to Rs 49.33-crore in 2006-07.
"Gujarat has an international land and sea border with Pakistan and also has a 1,600 km-long coastline. Those states with long coastlines need modern equipments and scientific instruments to curb terrorism," Shah said, adding even Rs 100-crore per year for police modernisation is not enough now.
"But despite our demands, the Union government had decreased the MPF. We had also made representations at various levels in the Centre to allocate separate funds for mega-cities like Ahmedabad and Desert Area policing," he said.
Shah said the Gujarat chief minister has been raising the issue at the CMs meeting with the Prime Minister on internal security since last three years.
Despite this, Gujarat's demand has not been taken into consideration, he lamented.
The minister said that in the last three years there has been significant increase in MPF from Rs 69.40-crore in 2007-08 to Rs 87.47-crore in 2009-10.
In reply to another question related to border security by BJP MLA Bharat Barot, Shah gave a written reply that a special battalion has been created for security of border areas and fight against terrorists.
Shah said that for coastal security a Marine police force has been created with strength of 566 personnel. Moreover, for security of border areas in Kutch and Jamnagar districts two new State Reserve Police (SRP) batallions of 1,200 personnel each have been created.
