Police Reform

Our Home Minister, Janardan Sharma is in a hurry to show us all, that he can bring reforms in the police force. Well, we had so many Home Ministers since we became a Republic and all they have done is promote and transfer their near and dear ones to make a quick buck!

Home Minister Sharma had earlier directed the Traffic Police to stop collecting fines from jaywalkers. At least some of us who do have the habit of crossing the road without worrying about the speeding micro won't have to cough up a few hundred bucks anymore. 

But it would have been nice if our Home Minister had also directed our Traffic wallahs to take action against speeding public vehicles and their 'stop-in-the-middle' of the road nataks as well. And let us all feel sorry for them because our Home Minister has cancelled their 15% commission for traffic violation tickets but has promised them extra chiya kharcha. 

Our Traffic personnel will all suffer from respiratory illnesses for the rest of their lives. They should be provided free medical treatment for sacrificing their health to direct traffic in Dustmandu! Maybe our Home Minister should work as a traffic volunteer for a week and then go for a check-up to see the damage caused by having to stand up for hours out on the roads!

Our Home Minister wants to create two new posts in Nepal Police, that of Assistant Head Constable and Senior-Sub Inspector. Why? Because he feels that police personnel won’t get discouraged for having to serve in the same position for quite a while. I don't think we need to add more positions. Why not just promote them to Head Constable and Inspectors instead?

How about cutting down on the bloated upper-ranks where Nepal Police now has positions for 8 AIGS, a whole lot of DIGs , and a more than a truck-load of SSPs. 

Two decades ago, we had two AIGs but it seems that every other Home Minister wants to add more to satisfy their near and dear ones and those who can offer them suitcases filled with cash. And don't be surprised if a SP is in-charge of police beat in the near future. 

And it's about time, our government did something to amend the service term for our police personnel. Instead of the thirty-year service tenure, why not just go with the age limit when our civil servants retire at 58. 

I think it's about time our government also increased the retirement age for our civil servants from 58 to at least 60. It seems that we are losing competent and professional senior police personnel who have to retire due to the thirty-year natak.  It would at least save us billions of Rupees in pensions and other perks as well.

Our Home Minister should also focus on providing adequate resources to Nepal Police. When it comes to our security agencies, Nepal Army and Armed Police Force seem to have their way while the government seem to ignore the needs of Nepal Police when in reality, our men and women in blue are the ones who deal with the public every day. 

And it's about time the government think about what to do with the APF wallahs?  Even the APF folks are confused about their role in New Nepal. Will they be just protecting the border in some ways, guarding foreign embassies and providing security to our chor netas? 

And we really need to train our APF folks not to be trigger-happy and start firing at protesters and killing them. We really need to teach them how to restrain themselves and use other non-lethal means to control protestors. How about a Dohori competition between the security personnel and our protesters?  Now that would be nice, wouldn't it?

Our Home Minister has also promised to end the practice among our police wallahs when it comes to getting promotions and lucrative transfers. Well, that would be great but when we have Deuba as our Prime Monster, it will be really difficult to get rid of corruption and the practice of offering boras of cash to our netas for promotions!  

It's not only Deuba but every other politicians do lobby for their near ones to get the promotion. Some do it because they belong to the same district while most do it for hard cold cash. 

Our Home Minister also wants to end the system of our senior police officers having lower-ranked personnel as their domestic helps.  Well, it's not a new thing to have someone serving as an orderly to higher ranks in security agencies but we have thousands of police personnel working as slaves at homes of current and retired senior officers. 

And it's about time, our senior security officers told their spouses that they joined the security agencies to serve the country and not to get domestic helps to do their shopping and do the dishes and other household chores.

Our Home Minister should also cut down on security personnel providing security to former ministers and even Prime Monsters. We have a new PM every nine months and  yes they do need a vehicle, and a few security personnel to provide them security but we all know how many of them guard our thulo mancheys! 

And why do former Home Ministers who last served like decades ago are still getting free vehicles and dozens of security personnel? Well, our chor netas love freebies and it seems that they feel that if they don't get a luxury vehicle from the state and a dozen police wallahs guarding their homes, they lose face among their near and dear ones. 

This is what happens when our netas see politics as a get-quick-rich natak! Let us hope Janardan Sharma will fulfill his promises and who knows, he might be our next PM and then he can do more than those who have lived in Baluwatar and have so far done nothing! 

Guffadi is a grumpy old man who blogs at guffadi.blogspot.com. You may contact him at maguffadi@gmail.com