Kathmandu, March 14

The Ministry of Home Affairs has written to the Ministry of Finance, requesting the latter’s consensus on providing monthly incentive allowance to traffic police personnel in Kathmandu Valley.

Kiran Bhattarai, press coordinator to Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, said that the incentive allowance for traffic cops was proposed in accordance with the Directive on Risk and Performance Based Incentive Allowance for Traffic Police, 2018. As per the proposal, the government will provide incentive allowance ranging from 20 to 30 per cent of their monthly remuneration to traffic cops. Only the personnel ranking from helper to deputy superintendent of police will be entitled to the incentive allowance.

If the proposal is approved by the MoF, DSP will enjoy incentive allowance of 10 per cent, inspector 20 per cent, sub-inspector and assistant sub-inspector 25 per cent each, and head constable, constable and helper 35 per cent each of their monthly pay. Currently, the monthly salary of DSP is Rs 34,220, inspector Rs 30,500, SI Rs 23,500, ASI Rs 22,140, head constable Rs 18,340, constable Rs 17,230 and helper Rs 16,230. The MoHA said that the incentive allowance was proposed for traffic police bearing in mind the nature of their duty and the hazards associated with it in Kathmandu valley.

However, traffic cops working in the districts other than Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur will not be entitled to the proposed incentive allowance. In June 2017, the MoHA had scrapped the provision of providing traffic police a 15 per cent share of the revenue they collected from motorists in fines after it drew strong criticism from all corners. The general public used to allege that traffic police had been issuing violation ticket to motorists to earn more.

In the wake of such allegation, the line ministry of the security body had announced that a share of 15 per cent being enjoyed by traffic police would be discontinued and the government would provide them with daily allowance of Rs 200 instead. The Council of Ministers had decided to provide commission to the traffic cops in 2012, inducing them to collect more revenue in fines.

The traffic police to vehicle ratio was 557:78,243 in 1995 against 965:850,000 in 2019. The number of vehicles has increased by over 840 per cent against mere 75 per cent increment in traffic police strength during the period. The current strength of Metropolitan Traffic Police Division is 1,200. MTPD oversees traffic management in the valley.

More than 850,000 vehicles ply the valley roads, according to MTPD. The length of the road network is around 1,595 km in valley. On an average, a traffic cop has to cover 1.46 km. Deployment of adequate human resources, use of new technologies, phasing-out of old vehicles, arrangement of large buses for mass transportation could play a vital role in managing the valley traffic, MTPD said.