Kathmandu, October 2
The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has formed a subcommittee to study the procurement of uniforms for election police.
A meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on Friday formed a nine-member subcommittee led by Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Manish Jha. The subcommittee has been given two months to complete its study.
Lawmaker Ain Mahar, Yogesh Gauchan Thakali, Aren Rai, Khagendra Sunar, Khushbu Oli, Ramesh Kumar Malla, Ganesh Dhimal and Mahendra Bahadur Shahi are members of the subcommittee.
Nepal Police procured uniforms for election police last Magh. Lawmaker Khagendra Sunar has repeatedly raised questions, alleging irregularities in the procurement process.
For the House of Representatives election held on Falgun 21, 2082 BS Nepal Police recruited 133,980 election police, while the Armed Police Force recruited 15,110. A total of 149,090 election police were recruited by the two forces.
The government allocated between Rs 50,954 and Rs 86,484 per election police, depending on their deployment location. The amount covered 40 days of remuneration, food, transportation and snacks.
The government also allocated Rs 11,500 for uniforms for personnel deployed in the mountainous region, Rs 7,945 for those in the hills and Rs 6,170 for those deployed in the Tarai.
According to police officials, around Rs 1 billion was released under the election police uniform budget.
Complaints had been filed with various agencies at the time, alleging that substandard uniforms were supplied to police personnel recruited for only about one and a half months.
