Kathmandu: Back in September 2018, the cabinet of KP Sharma Oli decided to move the offices of Nepal Police Academy from Maharajgunj in Kathmandu to Kavrepalanchok. The decision was taken to expand the area of the president’s office, and to make it more “advanced, spacious and better-facilitated”. The decision, under which the Academy would be vacated within 18 months, was not received well by current and former police personnel.
The personnel let their displeasure be known recently. On August 3, as many as 14 former IGPs, under the coordination Motilal Bohora, submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba requesting to scrap the decision.
Established in 1956, the Academy used to be known as Sadar Police Training Center previously. Before it became the police academy, it was a horse stable of Krishna Shumsher.
The police personnel has a strong emotional attachment with the academy, which is spread across 193 ropanis of land.
“The earlier government did not consult with the police force and other bodies before deciding on the academy,” Bohara told Nepal Live Today recently. “It was a thoughtless decision. They considered the police academy to be a normal or small office that can be shifted with a light plan.”
Bohara added that his team’s call for a meeting with the former members of the cabinet went unheeded.
“Now as the new government has formed, we are hopeful that our demands will be fulfilled,” said Bohara. “It has a great historical and emotional importance. The decision has a serious impact on the emotions of police forces.”
Bohora recalls his time at the academy during the 1970s. “Every day, I along with my other police friends used to carry cement from Samakhusi to build its infrastructure. The football ground inside that academy is the result of our hard work,” Bohara shared.
The academy conducts more than 2000 training annually, and the shifting of the academy will affect all of it, Bohara added.
Hemanta Malla, former Deputy Inspector General, believes that the relocation of the police academy to make space for the Presidential Residence is “impractical”, because of the distance between the new location of the academy and the core city area. He said that the basic training of fresh recruits today is conducted under a curriculum of the TU. “Professors and faculties from TU come to the present academy to give lessons,” Malla said. “When this premise is shifted to Kavre, it will add an hour or two of commute which is simply not practical for professionals who will have other responsibilities other than training recruits.”
On August 3, as many as 14 former IGPs, under the coordination Motilal Bohora, submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba requesting to scrap the decision.
He also pointed out that more than 80 percent of experts that come and give advanced training to police personnel come from abroad. He says that foreign experts won’t bother with the extra time and effort of the commute to Kavre to give lessons when they are already in a time crunch.
Malla emphasized that the Police Academy premises weren’t entirely made by government financing. “Many plots of land were donated, some given at very low prices by police personnel themselves and other benefactors,” he says, making a moral argument that the government cannot unilaterally decide to relocate the academy.
He also pointed out the emotional significance of the academy to generations of cadets passed out from there. He shares an anecdote where many cadets on basic training, including the former IGP Kuber Singh Rana, had contributed manually to build the present CIB building.
The new police academy in Kavre, which was supposed to be completed within one and half years, still hasn’t made any notable progress, even after three years of deciding to shift the academy to Kavre.
“The completion of the Police Academy in Kavre is uncertain,” said Spokesperson of Nepal Police SSP Basanta Bahadur Kunwar. “The tender for the building has also not been announced yet.”
Meanwhile, Bohara and his colleagues are not willing to give up the fight against the decision. “If our demands are not addressed,” said Bohara, “we will keep protesting till our last breaths.”
Rhishav Sapkota contributed to this report.
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