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Changeling cops neo-politicos
KATHMANDU, MAY 23 -
What happens when security personnel assigned for the security of political leaders turn more politico than their wards? Ask Nepal Police.
Most of the Personal Security Officers (PSOs) deployed for the security of influential political leaders have taken on a political avatar. Senior police officers said the problem has started taking a toll on police administration as most of these PSOs disobey orders.
These PSOs with immense political backing become so powerful that the HQ cannot transfer them to other places. If such orders are issued, more often than not they have to be withdrawn.
“It seems working for the security of political leaders is a means to early promotion, transfer to lucrative places and stairway to UN missions,” said police officers. “Most PSOs deployed for political leaders act as if they are political preachers themselves. Politics and their profession becomes more important to them. Through their political masters, they rake in benefit from all sides,” said a police officer involved in deploying PSOs.
According to police statistics, over 10 percent of PSOs do not return despite calls from the police headquarters. “They use their political influence to defy our orders,” said a police official. “There are scores of PSOs who have not returned to the HQ for over 10 years.”
Police spokesman Bigyan Raj Sharma conceded that “some PSOs have misused their positions”. “The HQ will recall such manpower and take action against those police personnel flouting professional norms or who have become mouthpieces of political parties.”
Though the Home Ministry claims to have provided enough PSOs to VVIPs depending on the “level of security threat”, there is no special system to figure out the threat level or the required number of PSOs. Hence the loopholes.
Sharma maintained that Police Headquarters would soon set up a new mechanism to strictly monitor the status of PSOs and misuse of other police personnel.
According to police officials at HQ, there is a tradition still intact in the police force whereby junior police personnel have to work as domestic help in the houses of senior police officers and their relatives. It is estimated that over 2,500 police personnel, most of them low-ranking, have been working as domestic help.
The Home Ministry, after intense pressure from various quarters last year, had asked various departments to immediately end the practice and provide details on the status of PSOs. The departments concerned have still not submitted their findings to the ministry.
Posted on: 2010-05-24 07:27
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