Nepal Police set to introduce Kathmandu Metropolitan Police

In a bid to reduce crime in the city, the Nepal Police is all set to start Kathmandu Metropolitan Police (KMP) in three districts of the valley from November 17.
Speaking at a press conference organized to inform about the new Police force at the Police Headquarters, Inspector General of Police, Om Bikram Rana informed that the KMP will be headed by a Police Commissioner (PC) with the rank of Additional Inspector General of Police.
There will be an Additional Police Commissioner as deputy to the PC. A separate Metropolitan Rural Police will be formed under the KMP to look after suburbs of three districts.
There will be nine separate divisions each under the command of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP). The divisions include Peace and Security, Administration, Human Resource Management, Intelligence, Special Security, Traffic Management, Investigation, Technical Support and License Issuing Divisions.
Rana further informed that the KMP will be introduced in five phases and the first phase will be introduced on November 17.
Stating that it will be mandatory for a police under KMP to be at least SLC graduate, Police Chief Rana said, "The focus of KMP would be crime investigation, crime control and public order in the first phase of programme."
As per the press release distributed on the occasion, there will be three tiers of police officers including Range, Circle and Sector offices under Kathmandu Metropolitan Police.
There will be 10 Metropolitan Police Circles and 70 Metropolitan Police Sections headed by a Deputy Superintendent of Police and Police Inspector respectively.
A new control room equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographical Information System (GIS), Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and Digital Voice Logger (DVL) will be installed.
There will be 70 control room vehicles — 50 in Kathmandu, 10 in Lalitpur and 10 in Bhaktapur — under the control room.
Altogether 5,340 police personnel are currently deputed in three districts in the valley. According to Police, a total of 13,752 police personnel would be deputed in Kathmandu valley under the KMP.
The police headquarters has sought a number of semi-judicial authorities, including authorities to impose curfews, fix places for rallies or to ban them, authorities related to registration of press and issue licences to produce films or censor films and authorities to issue driving licences, among other things, to probe immigration-related crimes and authorities to issue licence to keep arms.
“We have asked the government to grant us these authorities. It is still in the womb as to what powers the authorities provide to the commissioner,” Rana added.