KATHMANDU, Feb 23: With the Ministry of Home Affairs starting the promotion process for five vacant Additional Inspector General (AIG) posts in the Nepal Police, a massive tug-of-war of power and influence has started among the competitors.
The competition has grown intense as one of the five AIGs promoted this time will be appointed as new chief of Nepal Police. Sources say the competitors for promotion have started flocking to possible power corridors including the top political leadership of ruling parties.
This comes in the wake of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Ashok Singh, who was considered to be a strong contender for Inspector General of Police (IGP), had to leave in the middle of a similar tug-of-war. He had to resign from the service when the age dispute, which was not seen during his 28 years of service, came out in the wake of the AIG promotion.
A complaint was filed against him at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on February 15, raising questions about his date of birth and educational qualification. On Wednesday, he went to the police headquarters and resigned as he seemed to be weak in the same dispute.
Sources close to him claim that Singh's weaknesses have been brought out by AIG's competitors. "Now, after seeing that he will be promoted to AIG and also become IGP, it is those competitors who filed a complaint to stop him from the race," the source said. "IGP Dhiraj Pratap Singh also has a hand in this. DIG Singh did not have a good relationship with him. Therefore, this has been done to prevent all of them from becoming IGP.”
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Similarly, the other competitors are also engaged in activities ranging from finding each other's weaknesses to pleasing the power center, said the source. All competing policemen are visiting the house of top political leadership. Other influential power centers are also reaching somewhere," said a senior police officer, adding, "Activities such as spying against each other are taking place."
Post of AIG remains vacant for seven months
In the last seven months, one AIG post has been vacant in the police force. The first AIG post was vacant since August 5, 2022. Dissatisfied with the promotion of Dhiraj Pratap Singh to IGP, the then AIG Bishwa Raj Pokharel retired on that date due to age limit.
A month later on September 16, another AIG Mukundaraj Acharya also retired due to age limit. On November 1, Arun Kumar BC and on November 11, Rabindra Bahadur Dhanuk also retired. Similarly, five posts became vacant after the retirement of another AIG Pooja Singh on February 17, 2023.
The government did not pay attention to filling the posts in AIG posts that started to fall vacant for seven months. However, according to the police regulations, there is a provision that the post should be filled within three months of the vacancy. According to the police regulations, there is a provision for the promotion of the AIG by the promotion committee chaired by the secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Its members include the Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and the IGP as a member. The decision to promote the recommended candidate is taken by the Council of Ministers.
19 DIGs in competition
With the resignation of DIG Singh, 19 DIGs are competing for promotion to five vacant AIG posts. Three of them are batch mates of IGP Singh. Purushottam Kandel, Nal Prasad Upadhyaya and Masood Alam Khan are batchmates of IGP Singh.
The remaining 16 DIGs who are waiting for promotion to the post of AIGs are of the latest batch. They include DIGs Basant Bahadur Kunwar, Tek Prasad Rai, Deepak Thapa, Shyama Lal Gyawali, Kiran Bajracharya, Sandip Bhandari, Sudip Giri, Meera Chaudhary, Tek Bahadur Tamang, Umesh Raj Joshi, Shyam Prasad Dhakal, Ram Dutta Joshi, Poshraj Pokharel, Buddhi Raj Gurung, Durga Singh and Kiran Rana.
While three DIGs Kandel, Upadhyaya and Khan of IGP Singh's batch are promoted on the basis of seniority, two of them will be promoted from the last batch. However, if we look at the promotion practice within the police, it is seen that anyone can be promoted by the government.
Under the direction of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also in charge of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the ministry has already started preparations for the promotion of AIG. Sources said that in the first phase, details of the competitors were requested from the police headquarters.
Central Spokesperson of Nepal Police DIG Posharaj Pokharel also confirmed this. He said, "The head office is preparing to collect and send the details. This will be sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs soon,” he said.
