Nepal

Kathmandu, August 7

Crimes related to women and children need to be handled by women cops for effective results, according to experts. But, 92 per cent of total 64,323 personnel of Nepal Police are male with females making only eight per cent (5,145 personnel) of the police force. Most of the women police personnel have been assigned administrative work, leaving just few for investigating crimes.

The constitution has guaranteed inclusion of least 33 per cent of women in all government bodies. But, Nepal Police, which is the governmentlaw enforcement agency lags far behind in complying with the constitutional provision. According to police report, as many as 19,565 crimes related to women and children like rape, attempt to rape, polygamy, violence against women, untouchability, child marriage and sexual abuse were recorded in the fiscal 2018-19. If only female cops were to attend these cases, at least one female police official was required to handle around four cases related to children and women.

There are 2,560 police units across the country, including the police headquarters. That means an average of only two female police staffers could be placed at one police unit. The second Conference of the UN Police Chiefs held on June 20 and 21 in UN Headquarters, New York, had recommended that the UN member counties should increase the number of female police cops by 20 per cent. Inspector General of Police, Sarbendra Khanal had attended the conference. Nepal Police lags far behind in meeting this target. Hemant Malla Thakuri, a security expert and also a former deputy inspector general of police said female police officials were a must in investigation of cases like rape and sexual molestation against women and children. &One of the jobs of the police is to provide comfort to women and children victims. Female investigating officials are more likely to ensure comfort to them. Interrogation by male cops could be intimidating to victims thereby affecting criminal investigation process,& he said.

Women in Nepali society are reluctant to join police force given odd working hours. &Until a few years ago, quota allocated for women used to remain unfulfilled. But, time has changed and more women are coming forward to be a part of the security agency,& Thakuri said. Police regulation requires 45 per cent reservation for all types of minority groups. Out of all reservation quotas, 20 per cent should be allocated for female candidates.

Senior female police officials told THT that the reservation quota was too small to accommodate a large number of women candidates aspiring to join the security force. DIG Bishwaraj Pokharel, Nepal Police spokesperson conceded that presence of female cops across the country was low. DIG Pokharel said more women police officials were required to conduct criminal investigation.

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Kathmandu, August 7

A massive fire engulfed the data centre located in the head office of Subisu Cable Net Pvt Ltd, an internet service provider, at Baluwatar today, destroying property worth millions of rupees.

A thick black cloud of smoke was seen rising from the building as hundreds of pedestrians and neighbours witnessed the incident that lasted for nearly two hours.

Sudhir Parajuli, chief executive officer of the company, said the fire spread from a fuel-powered generator room, ‘most probably caused by short circuit in the generator&. &We suspect a spark might have ignited diesel stored in the room to be used for the generator.&

Parajuli said fire fighters reached the site 35 minutes after the fire broke out and the first two fire trucks deployed for extinguishing the inferno were dysfunctional, which prolonged the process of bringing the fire under control. &Had the fire fighting team been more effective, the master control room could have been saved. But it was already too late, so they used water cannon to control the fire.&

Naresh Raj Kunwar, fire commander at Kathmandu Fire Brigade (Juddha Barun Yantra) at Basantapur, however, claimed that they had reached the site within eight minutes of receiving the first call at 12:44pm. &Our team was deployed at the site a minute after we received the call and reached there at 12:52pm,& he said.

The JBY was the first fire fighting team to reach the site. On dysfunctional fire trucks, Kunwar said although they had made necessary arrangements thinking it to be a normal house fire, they realised the situation was more serious upon reaching the site, as diesel stored inside the office had added fuel to the fire. &Our fire brigade is not equipped to deal with gasoline fire. So, we used around 100 litres of special foam we had and sought help of Nepali Army, which was equipped to control such fire.& Kunwar conceded that had they been able to contain the fire in generator room, the damage to the main office building could have been lessened. &But carpets, desks and electronic materials inside the main office had already started burning, so we used fire engine to bring it under control.&

Fire trucks, fire fighters and security personnel from Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Nepali Army and the fire fighting brigade from Bhaktapur and Lalitpur were able to bring the fire under control by 1:55pm.

• 300,000 customers hit
• UPDATED: Subisu fire under control; details of loss being collected

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Kathmandu, August 7

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority today arrested an immigration official of Tribhuvan International Airport for allegedly colluding with agents to grant departure permission to youths on visit visa in an unauthorised manner.

Joint Secretary Pradeep Kumar Koirala, CIAA spokesperson said Kamal Prasad Parajuli was taken into custody for further investigation for his involvement in allowing some youths to fly to Dubai and Qatar on visit visa. The CIAA swung into action after it received complaints against Parajuliwrongdoings.

According to the anti-graft body, Parajuli colluded with agents to send the youths to Gulf countries without following rules on work permit. He was found putting departure stamps on their visas without maintaining their records to cover up his unethical acts. Spokesperson Koirala said an investigation was launched into the incident.

Arrest of Parajali showed how the government officials were working in collusion with human traffickers for a fast buck. In 2017, International Relations and Labour Committee of the Parliament had asserted that racketeers were working in collusion with immigration officials at TIA to traffic Nepali youths to Gulf countries.

According to a study conducted by the parliamentary panel, human trafficking was not possible without collusion with government officials. The panel also found that around 60 per cent of Nepali women employed as housemaids in the Gulf left for destination countries from TIA on tourist visa. The government had imposed a ban on Nepali women to work as domestic helpers in Gulf countries in 2017, to protect them from forced labour, trafficking and other forms of exploitation. The protectionist measure of the government has failed to deter agents active in sending women to Gulf countries for domestic works through illegal means.

In the past, Nepali women and girls trafficked by crime syndicates used to end up in Indian cities like New Delhi and Mumbai. Now trafficking of Nepali women and girls is not limited to the neighbouring country. The web of trafficking has spread to Gulf, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, according to a report by the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police.

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Kathmandu, August 7

All local levels have been directed to take necessary steps to eliminate caste-based discrimination and untouchability in accordance with the recommendations made by the National Human Rights Commission.

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration asked the local levels to accord high priority for promotion and protection of human rights of Dalit community, in response to the July 12 letter of the rights body regarding implementation of the recommendations made to the local governments through a report, ‘Status of Rights against Caste-based Discrimination and Untouchability&.

As per a six-point recommendation by the National Human Rights Commission, the local levels will protect and promote human rights of the Dalit community by implementing the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights enshrined in the constitution as fundamental rights.

Caste-based discrimination and untouchability have deprived citizens of their basic human rights and caused adverse impacts on their life, liberty, equality and dignity.

&Local bodies will be responsible to incorporate ways to end caste-based discrimination and untouchability in their policies, plans, programmes and budget as it is not only a problem of the Dalit community, but of all communities,& the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration said.

The National Human Rights Commission recommendation said democracy, human rights and the rule of law would be meaningful and the vision of peace, development and prosperity could be realised only if such ill-practices were completely abolished from society.

&The local levels are also required to fully implement commitment made by Nepal against caste-based discrimination at the international level, provide training to law enforcement agencies and conduct awareness-raising campaigns to end all ill-practices in the country and work in coordination with the federal and provincial governments by forming anti-caste-based discrimination and anti-untouchability promotion mechanism to bring to book the guilty,& The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration stated.

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