CoAS brings reforms in Nepali Army

Kathmandu, October 13

Newly appointed Chief of Army Staff General Purna Chandra Thapa has introduced reforms in the national army. The new CoAS has directed NA personnel not to receive or donate gifts.

He also told staff members to address the wives of high ranking generals as ‘madam’ and not ‘Rani Saheb’.

Low ranking officers and soldiers used to address the wives of generals and colonels as  ‘Rani Saheb.’ CoAS Thapa also cancelled the quota system, which gave privilege to the generals to send a soldier to the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission.

CoAS Thapa recently told his officers that he had made some changes in the rules, because he wanted to develop the NA as a professional organisation, a high-level source at the NA said.

CoAS Thapa ordered that NA’s party palace on the premises of the army headquarters not be rented out to outsiders. Thapa also directed NA personnel not to hang the picture of the army chief in each and every army barracks.

Former major general and security expert Binoj Basnyat said the NA needed to improve its image. “The new CoAS has brought these reforms at the right time,” he said, adding, that the NA had the people’s trust which it needed to maintain.

The CoAS is an institution and if s/he takes sentimental decisions, the NA cannot be made a professional organisation, Basnyat argued.

Former brigadier  general and security expert Prem Singh Basnyat said CoAS Thapa was trying to bring positive changes in the NA.