While the ministry in April amended the Armed Police Force (APF) and National Investigation Department (NID) regulations limiting the tenure of security personnel serving under them to 30 years, the provision is yet to be implemented in Nepal Police, another security agency under the same ministry. [break]
The provisions of compulsory retirement after 30 years of service in the APF and NID regulations had made a dozen senior officials including the then APF chief Basu Dev Oli and NID chief Dhan Singh Karki to retire.
Police officials are irked as the then government conspicuously refrained from introducing the provision in the Nepal Police. “The government could have enforced the provision of compulsory retirement after 30 years of service in Nepal Police too, but it did not do that,” complained a senior Nepal Police official.
As per the existing Nepal Police regulations, the government, if it deems necessary, can extend by two years the tenures of senior officers who have already served 30 years.
This discretionary provision, however, has remained controversial for the past several years as the government chose to extend the tenures of some officers while denying the same favor to many others.
While the then Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam relieved 11 Additional Inspector Generals (AIGs) including the Inspector General Om Bikram Rana after they completed 30 years, he had extended the term of Senior Superintendent of Police Bir Bahadur Rana, Superintendent of Police Ram Lagan Prasad Yadav and Deputy Superintendent of Police Min Prasad Poudel, among others.
Police officials argue that the discretionary provision has only given an excuse for the minister concerned to play foul under various pretexts like bribery as has been seen in the past several years.
Contrary to the existing Nepal Police regulations, the newly amended APF and NID regulations contain provisions giving compulsory retirement either on the basis of years of service in a particular position or on the basis of age.
The age limit for inspector general in APF and chief investigation director in NID is 58, while it is 56 for AIG and DIG and 55 and 54 for SSP and SP respectively.
Likewise, police officers automatically retire after serving a maximum of 10 years as SP, 7 years as SSP, 5 years as DIG and AIG and 4 years as IG.
Lower-rung police officials have welcomed the then Maoist-led government´s decision to relieve police officials who have served for 30-year service.
They argue that the provision of compulsory retirement after 30-year service would pave the way for young generation officers to reach to the top position and positively contribute to the police organization. “It is sad to note that those commissioned as police inspectors are serving in the same position even after 13 years of service,” a police officer remarked.
koshraj@myrepublica.com
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