Kathmandu, January 22

The Metropolitan Police Office has announced its plan of recruiting metropolitan volunteer police to ensure improved security and maintain law and order in the Kathmandu Valley.

For this, the MPO has invited applications from eligible candidates aspiring to work as volunteer police personnel in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur and support the law enforcement agency in making the Valley a safer place to live in. The MPO is the primary law enforcement agency for all three districts in the Valley.

Interested and eligible persons may submit application to the MPO, Ranipokhari or metropolitan police ranges in Teku, Jawalakhel and Bhaktapur by February 2. Police Commissioner AIGP Pratap Singh Thapa said the MPO will recruit as many as 40 volunteer cops in the first phase of the pilot project. Any literate Nepali citizen between the ages of 18 and 50, who has no political affiliation and has not been convicted of any criminal offence may apply for the volunteer positions. Similarly, candidates between the ages of 50 and 60 years may also be recruited as senior volunteer cops.

The Ministry of Home Affairs recently enacted the Metropolitan Volunteer Police Mobilisation Guideline, 2015, exercising the powers conferred by Rule 2010 of Police Rules, 2014 to pave the way for the MPO to recruit volunteers cops. “As police alone cannot win the fight against crime in the Valley, which boasts of a population of 25,15,023 as per the 2011 Census and mobile population of over four million, we have felt an urgent need for public participation as volunteer cops to reduce the yawning gap in police to people ratio (1:414). The Valley has a total strength of 11,648 police personnel in the Valley,” said AIGP Thapa.

The idea of recruiting volunteer police is also part of public-police partnership. Metro police will provide a 20-hour orientation training to the selected candidates in line with a curriculum developed by the Nepal Police. Caps with the logo of metro police and florescent jackets will be provided to the volunteer cops as uniform. They will be required to work for at least 120 hours — four hours a day — to be eligible for volunteer police certificate. Volunteer cops will not be entitled to facilities (salary, ration, clothing and housing) provided to the police by the government.

However, the metro police will provide the volunteer cops a cash relief of up to Rs 500,000 if he/she dies in the line of duty. Medical expenses will also be borne by the metro police in case of any injury or illness during the service. As per the guideline, the volunteer cops will be deployed along with police personnel in the designated places.