New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry is set to spend Rs 1,054 crore in the next two years on the procurement of modern weapons, vehicles and other equipment for central paramilitary forces, an official said on Thursday.

To help the law enforcement agencies in detecting, arresting and prosecuting criminals expeditiously, the official said three more central forensic laboratories will start functioning in Pune, Bhopal and Guwahati by next March.

According to the official, the decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Of the Rs 1,054 crore approved by the Central government under Phase 3 of the police modernisation scheme, half of the amount will be spent on the Central Reserve Police Force, while the rest will be spent on six other central armed police forces — the Border Security Force, the Central Industrial Security Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Sashastra Seema Bal, the National Security Guard and the Assam Rifles, the official said.

The official said that only Rs 200 crore was allotted for the seven paramilitary forces every year under Phase 2 scheme of the modernisation scheme which is scheduled to be completed by December.

The Home Ministry also enhanced the financial powers of the Director General of each of the central armed police forces from Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore per year, the official said.

The Ministry has also issued guidelines for the implementation of an over Rs 25,000 crore mega internal security scheme, approved by the Union Cabinet in September, to strengthen the country’s law and order mechanism, mordernise police forces and effectively fight against terrorism.

This is the biggest ever internal security scheme in the country and the financial outlay for the scheme over the three years period is Rs 25,060 crore, out of which the Central government share will be Rs 18,636 crore and the states’ share will be Rs 6,424 crore, the official said.

The distribution of state share will be decided in March and the funds will be released from April — the beginning of new financial year — for which guidelines have already been issued, the official said, adding five workshops for five different set of states will be held in January so that their plan for releasing the funds from will be received in time.