How would you evaluate your seven months as IGP?
There are a number of challenges, both internal and external. There is the prime challenge of maintaining law and order in the country, while management within the police force is also a matter of concern. Because we are in the middle of a prolonged transition, challenges have increased. With a technocratic government in place, we feel security challenges for us have multiplied.
How is your now famous action plan announced at the start of your tenure working out?
I had introduced a 14-point action plan. Most of the points have been implemented and others are in the process of implementation. Programs like police behavior modification and hasilo muhar sahitko prahari (police with smiling faces) have been great success. I have had good feedback from the media and people in general. Other programs are also doing well. We have installed citizen’s help desks across the country. We are launching periodic security projects and introducing special security arrangements during festivals. Likewise, we started Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) for specialized criminal investigation. We have revised and rewritten police regulation, drafted a three-year strategic action plan, three-year career development plan, VIP security law, regulations to monitor private security arrangement and policies regarding weapon management, among many others.
BHASHWOR OJHA
Have your plans brought about any tangible change?
Yes. Occurrences of serious crimes like murder, attempted murder, abduction, illegal arms possession, theft and armed robbery have gone down significantly. Likewise, organized crimes and frequency of obstructions and disruptive activities have also come down. I can say the security situation of the country has stabilized, if not greatly improved. I owe a great deal to the cooperation and collective effort of my officials and staffs.
It is said that politicians routinely interfere in police work. Is it true?
I have not had a bad experience in this regard. Political leadership has largely been cooperative. Yes, political leadership inquires about our actions. I wouldn’t call that intervention.
But surely there are exceptions. For instance former home minister Bijay Kumar Gachchadhar’s alleged order to halt investigation into money laundering cases got a lot of press. Curiously, the investigation restarted as soon as a new home minister came to office.
Let me be clear on this. The cases you are talking about were under investigation when I took charge. Now the files have been forwarded because we have finished investigations. So it has nothing to do with the current or former home minister. There was no pressure from the former home minister.
What is the experience of working under a bureaucrat-turned Home Minister?
As someone who has worked as the chief bureaucrat of the country, I believe [Home Minister Madhav] Ghimire is familiar with the difficulties of the police organization and the grievances of the police. He is familiar with our strengths as well as weaknesses. So I consider it an advantage to have someone with complete knowledge about our department as home minister. The entire security apparatus is comfortable with him.
Let us turn to upcoming polls. There have been cases of disruptions of voter roll update in various parts in the country. What have the police done?
We understand that the current government is an election government. We are committed to maintaining law and order situation across the country to create conducive atmosphere for polls. The Home Ministry has already issued necessary directives and we are working according those directives. We are doing homework for security management and formulating plans and policies based on our experience in the last CA polls. We are collecting statistics of the last polls and studying them. As for cases of obstruction by certain political groups, although there were a few such cases initially, by and large, we have managed to control them. The sporadic cases of disruption occurred due to lack of coordination between election commission officials and police administration at the local level. But after we intervened from the center these cases have been controlled. Now the police are providing complete security to election commission offices and the concerned officials out on the field. Any such disruptive activity will be deemed a criminal act and the people or groups involved in them will be treated as per the existing laws.
There are reports that Nepal Police favors polls in two phases. Is that the case?
We have not yet discussed whether election should be held on a single day or in two phases, primarily because an election date has not been fixed and also because Election Commission has not issued us any order. Yet we have been doing internal homework and making necessary plans for all possible options. We will make our security arrangement public after the EC gives us a clear mandate and announces election date.
Is the existing security force adequate for election security?
From the experience of the last CA election, I can tell you the existing human resource in Nepal Police won’t be enough. We had recruited 70, 000 additional myadi prahari (temporary police personnel) for the CA polls in 2008. Many things have changed in the last five years. So we may need more than 70,000 additional forces. It depends on the number of election constituencies, polling stations and sub-stations.
Any special preparations for the upcoming polls?
We have been collecting information from village and regional level offices to assess security sensibilities of all polling booths and constituencies as per the agreements in 2008. Based on this we are also analyzing possible security situations, logistic support and human resources needed. We have already submitted a tentative proposal to Home Ministry. The ministry has also decided to create a special election security cell comprising of different security bodies.
New challenges have emerged since last CA polls. Many political parties and ethnic groups have threatened to disrupt election. Armed groups have increased their presence in the Tarai. How do you assess the overall challenge?
We think this election is going to be much tougher than the last one. There can be greater security threats for election candidates. We will formulate and execute security plans by keeping all such possibilities in mind. Rest assured, the police will do all it can to manage security for the polls.
Lastly, Nepal Police seems to be undergoing lot of changes. As things stand, what are its biggest challenges?
Perhaps the biggest challenge is lack of professional development. Let me remind you we had to fight with a political outfit as a coercive force during the ten-year-long insurgency. In that time we could do virtually nothing to train staff for their professional development. The core issue of crime control was pushed to the backburner and police reforms were shelved. We have been trying to compensate for those lapses, but much needs to be done. We believe we will need 10 more years to make our force professionally capable. Besides, criminals have become more advanced and organized than before. Currently, we lack resources to dismantle their nexus. We are short of investigative capabilities, scientific and electronic equipments. We do not even have proper identification system. Let me tell you there is no mechanism and database to verify whether I am Kuber Singh Rana. Thus we have not been able to expedite investigations in the crime-prone zones. These factors have made our criminal investigation questionable at times. This could affect security management in the upcoming polls too.
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