Telangana Budget provides 64 cr for fire stations

Hyderabad: Sixty-three fire stations would be constructed in 22 Assembly constituencies at the cost of Rs 64 crore in the State in 2016-17. Finance Minister E Rajender in his budget speech on Monday said the Fire Services Department would be equipped with three modern vehicles to fight fire in high-rise buildings. "The total budget proposed for the Fire Services Department in 2016-17 is Rs 223 crore," he said.

The Minister said the government has assigned top priority to modernisation of the police system and has been providing adequate funds to strengthen it. "Government has sanctioned four new Indian Reserve battalions and approved for 3,896 new posts in the police sector.

Similarly, 4,000 modern vehicles were recently provided to the police department," he said. He said an amount of Rs 225 crore has been proposed in 2016-17 for the installation of city wide CCTV surveillance system. "The State for the first time has also taken a step concerning the health of police personnel and issued orders for providing incentive of 30 per cent of the basic salary to personnel engaged in traffic duty and an incentive of 25 per cent of the basic salary to the personnel working in CID and intelligence wings. The duty allowance of home guards has been enhanced from Rs 9,000 to Rs 12,000," he said.