Re-establishment of police posts difficult, says official

Dipayal, November 13:

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued directives to re-establish displaced police posts and area police offices in the rural areas of the district. However, the chances of this materialising appears slim in this far west region.

According to the Deputy Inspector General of Police at the far west regional police office in Dipayal, Surendra Pal, all except a few police posts were destroyed during the decade-long conflict. Consequently, their early re-establishment is difficult in the absence of required infrastructure.

Pal said the extensive damage to the physical infrastructure has rendered the situation such that renovation work at a small scale cannot enable re-establishment of the police posts and area police offices. New construction is necessary and the government should provide complete facilities for this, he added.

Deputy superintendent of police in the far west regional police office, Bhola Rawal, said 76 buildings were damaged in the far western region, including area police offices and police posts — seven in Doti district, seven in Dadeldhura district, 18 in Kailali district, nine in Kanchanpur district, seven in Darchula district, six in Baitadi district, five in Bajura district and 17 in Achham district.

Area police offices in Tikapur, Kailali, Kailali’s Sukhad, Bhajan and Doti’s Pipalla are functioning.

Rawal said that although political parties and social ativists claim that the displaced police posts will be re-established, the Maoists seem averse to the idea when an interaction was held between them and the political parties.