Kathmandu, February 16

Lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties registered 32 amendment proposals to the Police Bill stating that provincial governments should have the authority to set up provincial police administration and maintain law and order within their provinces.

They also proposed to curtail chief district officers’ power, saying provincial governments and not the CDOs should have power to mobilise police in the provinces.

Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmakers Janardan Sharma and Pampha Bhusal have stated in their proposal that ministries of internal affairs and law of provincial governments should mobilise police in the districts in coordination with CDOs.

The proposed bill states that provincial and district police officers will have to act as per the instructions of CDOs appointed by the federal government.

NCP lawmaker and Chair of the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee Krishna Bhakta Pokharel registered a proposal seeking to give ministries of internal affairs and law of the provinces power to mobilise provincial police in coordination with CDOs.

Lawmakers from the Nepali Congress Gagan Thapa and Sanjay Kumar Gautam registered an amendment proposal saying provincial government should have power to form provincial police and run the police administration. They also stated that province police chiefs should be under the command of provincial governments. Regarding uniform and training, Thapa and Gautam stated that provincial government should have authority to determine the uniform of province police and design training of provincial police to suit the needs identified by  the federal government.

Lawmakers Pradip Yadav and Uma Shankar Argariya of Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal also registered amendments separately stating that provincial government should have authority to control and deploy the province police. They also sought to curtail CDOs’ powers.

Chairperson of Public Accounts Committee Bharat Kumar Shah registered an amendment stating that CDOs should be under the provincial government.

PS Under-secretary Netra Karki said 32 amendments were registered and the bill would be sent to the House of Representatives, which would then send it to the parliamentary State Affairs and Good Governance committee for clause-wise discussion.