KATHMANDU, March 23: "Out of you five people who have been promoted now, one will become the IGP. Let's work together," said Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Wednesday while meeting five police officers who were recently promoted to the position of AIG of Nepal Police.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dhiraj Pratap Singh decorated Basant Kunwar, Tek Prasad Rai, Deepak Thapa, Shyam Lal Gyawali and Kiran Bajracharya with the insignia of AIG. After this, Singh went to Singha Durbar with all five AIGs. Meanwhile, in the meeting at the office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers at Singha Durbar, Prime Minister Dahal congratulated the promoted AIGs and asked them to support the government's drive for good governance and prosperity.
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IGP Singh was in the process of extending his tenure by lobbying for an amendment to the Nepal Police Act, 2012 and removing the 30-year service term for the police organization. Rule 127 (d) of the Act provides that the maximum service period of police personnel shall be 30 years. Sources claim that since Prime Minister Dahal himself clearly said that the next IGP will be from among the five new AIGs, there is little chance of the continuation of IGP Singh's tenure. If the rules are not amended immediately, the tenure of IGP Singh will end on Friday midnight (March 24). Singh joined the service as an inspector on March 24, 1993.
While there are only two days of IGP Singh's tenure left, the process of amending the regulations has not been started by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Joint Secretary at the ministry, Jitendra Basnet said that there was no information about any discussion or formal conversation related to the amendment during office hours on Wednesday. Prime Minister Dahal's secretariat also said that there is no possibility of amending the regulations immediately. "At present, the amendment of regulations is not possible. The prime minister himself said on Wednesday there will be a new IGP from among the five AIGs," the source said, "Also, there may be some discussions between the parties for the next IGP."
On the other hand, the Nepal Police Headquarters is waiting for the government's decision. "We are ready to do whatever the government says," said a special police officer, "If the act is amended, the term of the current IGP continues. If not, we welcome a new IGP. There is a 50/50 chance for both.”
If the provision of tenure in the regulation is not removed, AIGs Sahakul Bahadur Thapa, Uttamraj Subedi and Divesh Lohani, DIGs Nal Prasad Upadhyaya, Masood Alam Khan and Mohan Kumar Acharya, who were admitted in his batch along with IGP Singh, will retire from the night of March 24. After that, the five AIGs who have been promoted for IGP will be the competitors of the next IGP. Among them, Kunwar, Rai, Gyawali and Bajracharya joined the service as inspectors on March 19, 1995 while Thapa joined the service on September 4, 1995. They were promoted from Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) to Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) on July 3.
