What new Nepal police draft failed to address

♦By Shasank Regmi
Kathmandu. New Nepal police act promulgation has been a concern over a long period as police act 2012 has become obsolete. The nation has gone from panchayat to federalism but still that old act which was made with the help of Indian IGP Sadhu Ram Chaudhary is still in Play . The police act 2012 having many loopholes through which politicization of Nepal police organization have been done over the years which has undermined  the professionalism of Nepal police .

The new Nepal police act is under progress as new draft committee under home minister Ramesh lekhak has been formed and the new draft as received Green Signal already and now needs to be passed by Council of Ministers before going to the parliament. There is space for improvement itself by the Parliament discussion but if it is passed the same as of now the institutional capacity and improvement of the organization will be in jeophardy.

Committee for IGP promotion

The draft committee has resigned promotion committee for IGP yet again meritocracy has taken a major hit.  There are 5 bases for IGP promotion as of now seniority, work efficiency, work ability, ability to provide leadership, ability to motivate and mobilize junior personnel. But all this are for show purpose only as there is no clear indicator for its measurement which show why we are epitome of pragmatic society. It is mandatory to form a promotion committee under leadership of chairman of PSC with specific and clear indicator. 

The positive initiative the draft committee has taken is appointing IGP a month prior to retirement of current Igp . Despite of this measure it  would not completely  address the issue of politicization in Nepal police

Objective work evaluation

There is 5 marks allocated for challenging and special responsibility but  the major question is what kind of task  are considered challenging. The committee needs to set provision of work evaluation more objectively else it will strangle the meritocracy in the police service

Work evaluation by immediate commander

In promotion committee for aAIGP, home secretary and secretary of PMO are there as Chairman and member. How can secretary of PMO office evaluate special class officer promotion of Nepal police where he doesn't have direct line of supervision

About ex-police personell

Recently provision of cutting pension of ex-police personal if they criticize and oppose Government and police leadership is included .IT is direct attack on freedom of expression [ constitution of Nepal Article 17 (2) a ] the current congress home minister lekhak has a lot to learn from Sann daju  BP Koirala . BP help financially to newspaper which was against him showing epitome of Democratic character. The government need to learn that criticism isn't obstacle rather it helps one achieve its maximum potential. Criticism can be catalytic force towards improvement.

Policy related to national security and national Unity 51 (A) 7 has set to make use of knowledge skill and experience of former public employee military and police in national interest. The expertise of a former police personal can be used in different type of case and they can be given responsibility of observer as well

Work specialization

The major weakness of Nepal police is work specialization. The transfer of police officer is not timely rather it is connected with political nexus selfishness . One needs adept specialization to work in areas  such as organized Crime Investigation , traffic management etc. . Example one must Work in Central Bureau of Investigation for 5 years before getting transferred 

New discussion regarding integrated police service as of IPS

We have many organization for internal security including Nepal police armed Police Force and national investigation department. There has been discussion regarding creating integrated service like the Indian police force where one can be SP of a district and one can be a personell in CRPF or itbp (indo Tibetan border police). One passes Indian police service and according to specialization he/ she is mobilized in intelligence, disaster management and day to day policing according to their ability. There has been many instances where there has been lack of coordination between Nepal police apf and NID due to being of different organizations and having difference in chain of command. The discussion is taking place rapidly to solve this issue of organizational coordination. One who has profound knowledge can work in day to day policing, Border Management or intelligence according to their own skill.  For this integrated services efficiency discussion about Police Service Commission is coming on the surface where human resource activities of the police force his done by the commission itself for civil control home secretary would have significant importance in the Commission

At last

Nepal police is nucleus of internal security. Internal security is mandatory for progress of development of the country so all the concerned authorities need to give proper attention to upcoming Nepal police act