Kathmandu April 30

The government has issued a directive on internal security arrangement to ensure coordination among federal, provincial and district administrations for maintaining peace and security until necessary legislations are adopted.

An official at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers told THT that the directive will be in place until adoption of the Internal Security and Arrangement Act and the Police Act, which have been drafted. “The acts will provide legal bases for the directive,” the official said.  As per the directive, a copy of which THT obtained after it was endorsed by the Cabinet recently, provincial security coordination committees shall be formed under internal affairs and law minister of each province, with the secretary of the ministry and the provincial police chief as members. The chief of peace and security arrangement department will be the committee’s member secretary.

The internal affairs and law minister can call security agencies and other authorities of respective provinces for a meeting whenever required. The committee will help devise necessary policies for provincial security arrangement.

Provincial chief secretary or law and internal affairs secretary can issue directives for arranging security for high-level dignitaries, including the chief minister. The IAL secretary can also hold legal consultations with provincial attorney general, if needed. The IAL minister will coordinate in the event of any unforeseen security challenge acting on inputs from the chief district office. A report on the issue should be immediately forwarded to the home ministry, adds the directive.  The provincial chief minister will coordinate with security agencies through the provincial chief secretary on unforeseen security challenges and VIP security.

In case of a natural disaster, the law and internal affairs minister will coordinate with local administration for recovery, rescue and relief distribution. The local administration will seek support of local bodies for disaster management.

The MoIAL will also coordinate with the CDO to deploy units of Armed Police Force for disaster management.

As far as inter-provincial terrorist activities are concerned, the MoIAL will coordinate with the district administration office to control such activities as per the prevailing laws and the MoIAL should inform about such incidents to the federal Ministry of Home Affairs.

The chief of provincial offices of the National Investigation Department will report to MoIAL secretary and chief of district offices will report to the CDO on respective issues.

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