All play, no work for Nepal Police

Kathmandu, April 29:

Nepal Police - the Valley Police in particular - is virtually holidaying in the absence of a functioning government and the steep drop in the number of crimes taking place, police officers said today.

Officials in-charge of the police offices based in the Valley are savouring the slack because the government entitled to issue them directives is not yet in place. Besides, the number of crimes has gone down.

“There is no functioning government to tell us what to do with street demonstrations. No major crime has taken place, and investigations into earlier crimes are pending as most of police personnel have taken leave after hectic duty during the 19-day political movement,” a superintendent of police at the crime investigation department at the Police headquarters said.

According to a deputy superintendent of police in Kathmandu Valley, officers in-charge of police offices in the Valley are working these days to allow their subordinates to avail of leave. Senior police officers also are in no mood to work as the demonstrators have called for action against those officers who used force to suppress demonstrations.

“Possible reshuffle in the police department is also one of the reasons that is killing the spirit of police personnel,” Deepak Ranjit, superintendent of police at the Valley Crime Investigation Branch, said.

Meanwhile, a deputy inspector general of police at the police headquarters said the government is yet to provide the department personnel’s salaries for the last three months.

There are 47,349 police personnel in the organisation.