By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Mar. 16: Nepal Police is preparing to publish a recruitment notice for hiring 100,000 temporary policemen (Myadi police) to beef up security in the upcoming local level elections slated for May 13, 2022.
“The Ministry of Finance has given approval to the Nepal Police Headquarters to begin the recruitment process of exactly 100,000 temporary policemen,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and Spokesperson for the Police Headquarters Bishnu Kumar KC, said.

“We will publish a vacancy for a 40-day temporary job this week. Once recruited, we will provide them one week basic policing training,” SSP KC said while talking to The Rising Nepal on Tuesday.
He said that the Headquarters had asked for recruiting 118,000 Myadi police for the security during the elections. “Providing insufficient number means we need to seek support from other security bodies from the Armed Police Force Nepal (APF) and Nepali Army while executing security strategy for the elections,” SSP KC said.

For the salary of temporary policemen, the Headquarters has been provided with a budget of Rs. 4.39 billion and additional Rs. 1.32 billion for the Headquarters alone to purchase needed communication sets, including police sticks, said SSP KC.

“The budget doesn’t include money to buy vehicles for the Nepal Police as there is a plan to purchase some vehicles through the government-to-government model directly by the federal government itself,” SSP KC said.

The local elections held in 2017 in two phases had deployed 226,000 security personnel including the serving policemen. At that time, 75,000 temporary police were hired.
It will be challenging to the police to depute needed security personnel in the polling centres and booths, said police.

Police Headquarters has classified the polling stations into three categories: most sensitive, sensitive and general. During 2017 local-level election, the Headquarters had deputed 11 policemen in the most sensitive polling centres, seven in sensitive ones and five in general.

“Once the Election Commission Nepal confirms the total number of polling centres and booths, the Headquarters will decide on the number of policemen to be mobilised on the basis of security sensitivity,” SSP KC said.

Based on the actual number of polling centres, the number of security personnel will be determined as per the decision of the Central Security Operations Committee.
“Surely, the number of polling centres and booths will go up this time, so we must have sufficient number of police personnel and if needed, we must seek support from two other security bodies,” said SSP KC.