Police hard put running mess, thanks to fund crunch
For about one-and-a-half month now, security personnel in Nepalgunj-based Riot Control Police Battalion have been running their mess on credit for want of fund.
The government has yet to dispatch the fund to the battalion to run its mess.
Around 300 police personnel of the battalion currently take their meals in the mess on the premises of the barrack.
“It has become very difficult for us to run the mess on credit,” said battalion Chief SP Ajaya Bhattarai, adding, “If the government further delays in sending the fund, we will have no option but to stay hungry.”
Similar is the plight of the mid-west regional police training centre in Nepalgunj. “We are running the mess on credit due to lack of fund,” said centre chief SP Dansingh Bohara, adding that around 600 personnel eat in the centre’s mess every day.
Though the government used to send the ration amount by mid-February in the previous years, the budget was delayed this year after the police and armed police force demanded that the ration amount be hiked citing inflation due to earthquake, the Tarai agitation and border blockade.
According to Armed Police Force Industrial and Revenue Security Battalion Nepalgunj Chief SP Chandraprakash Bhatta, many other police and APF battalions have been facing similar problem.
“We are yet to receive the fund for ration as per the revised rate,” he said, while officials at the security bodies also bemoaned the despondency caused by the government’s negligence in sending the fund.
