KATHMANDU, March 29: The Ministry of Home Affairs has stated that the necessary preparations have been completed for security arrangements for the local level election slated for May 14.
Home Ministry spokesman Bal Krishna Panthi said all necessary security preparations have been made for holding the election in a free and fear-free environment.
According to him, the security plan has been already prepared for the central level while such plans are in the phase of preparation at the regional and district level. "All the districts have been directed a week back to present the security plans within 15 days and accordingly we will get the security plans from all the districts one week from now," spokesman Panthi said.
The local election which is taking place after 19 years and will elect 36 thousand people's representatives has a direct bearing at the village and locality level.
Panthi said the Nepal Police would be mobilized in the inner formation while the Armed Police Force in the outer security formation.
Likewise, the meeting of the Security Council took a decision last week to depute the Nepal Army in the outer circle for securing the polling centre and the ballot boxes. The meeting of the Council of Ministers will take a decision regarding the additional role of the Army.
The Ministry has stated that polling centre level election security plan in the districts has not been prepared as the Election Commission has not furnished to it the details on the number and location of the polling centers in all the districts.
The Home Administration has the plan to mobilize 226 thousand security personnel in the election. Accordingly, the Police Headquarters has already called for applications for 75 thousand temporary police within a week. Sixty thousand males and 10 thousand females have already applied for temporary police two days ahead of the deadline, spokesperson of the Nepal Police, Senior Superintendent Sarbendra Khanal said.
Khanal said youth have been found attracted to the temporary police and this would help make the election successful. He added that the police has already made the required security plans for the polls and taken it into implementation phase.
Spokesman Panthi stated that the Ministry of Home Affairs was vigorously working in connection to the preparation of the necessary resources for the election. "We have already sent a proposal to the Finance Ministry requesting for the required budget for the election before this. Some amount has also been released and we are requesting for more amount," he said.
Budget is being sought for immediately buying arms and ammunition including teargas shells for the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force, it is stated.
Panthi further said that the Ministry will design the necessary security strategy for the district and the polling centre based on sensitivity. He added that the Ministry has begun preparations to implement the full election security action plan within April 13. The Ministry has focused its attention to especially districts in Province 2 in the context of the Tarai-centric parties protesting the election. The security bodies have also kept the Netra Bikram Chand-led CPN Maoist under surveillance.
He stated that there was no truth in the talks that the election is going to be conducted in two phases, adding that so far the security strategy has been made with the belief that the election will be held in a single phase. RSS
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