Narayan Dutta Paudyal has been promoted to the position of Inspector General of Armed Police (IGP). Additional Inspector General (AIG) Paudyal, who is also the Chief of the Administration and Human Resources Department of the Armed Police Headquarters, was promoted to the position of IGP by the Cabinet meeting held on Monday. 

The current IGP Raju Aryal is going on compulsory retirement from 18 Baisakh after completing his 4-year term. Paudyal has been promoted to fill the vacant leadership position. Paudyal is an officer who joined the service along with the current IGP Aryal. He has been appointed as the 13th Inspector General of the Armed Police Force. He will take over the leadership from 18 Baisakh. Along with him, another AIG Banshiraj Dahal, who is also the Chief of the Border Department, was also in the running for the leadership position. 

Paudyal, who joined the Nepal Police as an inspector in Chaitra 2054, was transferred with a one-level promotion with the formation of the Armed Police Force in 2057 Magh. He became the DSP of the Armed Forces on 18 Ashad 2058 and became DSP on 18 Chaitra of the same year. He became SP on 29 Chaitra 2063, SSP on 2 Jestha 2070, DIG on 13 Kartik 2075 and AIG on 6 Jestha 2079. 

Born on 9 Mangsir 2030 to Reshkilal and Nandakali in Karekhola, Birendranagar-13, Surkhet, Poudel completed his MA from Tribhuvan University and has worked in a UN peacekeeping mission. About 5 months after Poudel became AIG, another competitor of the IGP, Dahal, was promoted to AIG on 28 Ashad. With the promotion, Poudel will remain in the leadership until 18 Chaitra 2084, maintaining his current 30-year service period.

The Gauri Bahadur Karki-led inquiry commission had recommended departmental action against the newly appointed IGP Poudel in connection with the incidents of the Gen-G movement on 23 and 24 Bhadra. However, the government promoted Paudyal while maintaining seniority in the organization. A three-member inquiry committee comprising former High Court judge Prem Raj Karki, former AIG of the Police Tek Prasad Rai and former AIG of the Armed Police Subodh Adhikari was formed on 2 Baisakh to further investigate the implementation of the commission's report by the security agencies. A cabinet meeting was called on Monday afternoon to take various decisions, including the promotion of the IGP position that will be vacant in the Armed Police Force within a few days. Prime Minister Balendra Shah is also in the departmental leadership of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Paudyal was promoted on his proposal. After the Maoists' armed and violent activities increased, the then government issued an ordinance and formed the Armed Police Force as a paramilitary organization in Magh 2057. The first ordinance regarding the establishment of the Armed Police Force was issued on 9 Magh 2057. On 23 Magh, the Armed Police Force Headquarters was established in the structure currently located at the National Police Training Academy of Nepal Police. On 30 Chaitra of the same year, the second ordinance related to the Armed Police Force was issued. Four and a half months later, the then King Gyanendra put the seal on the law related to the Armed Police Force. The next month, on 5 Asoj, the Armed Police Force was transferred from Maharajgunj to the then structure of the Nepal Police in Halchowk. 

On 7 Kartik of the same year, the then King Gyanendra bestowed the Nishan of Banglamukhi Bhagwati as the Kuldevi of the Armed Police Force, and about a year and a half later, the Armed Police Regulations were amended to include provisions related to service, conditions, and mobilization and administrative work.

On 3 Poush 2060, a new building was built in Halchowk and the then King Gyanendra inaugurated it, and the current Armed Police Force is operating from the new structure. With the decision to establish the Armed Police Force, human resources were transferred from the Nepal Army and the Police and human resources were managed in the organization since 2057. AIG Krishna Mohan Shrestha, who was transferred from the Police, was promoted as the founding Inspector General by the then government.

Founder Inspector General Shrestha, his wife Nudup and his bodyguard Sai Surya Prasad Regmi were shot dead by the then Maoist rebels in Bagdol, Lalitpur on 12 Magh 2059. After Krishnamohan, Sahabir Thapa, Basudev Oli, Sanat Kumar Basnet, Kishore Kumar Lama, Shailendra Kumar Shrestha, Koshraj Vanta, Durja Kumar Rai, Singha Bahadur Shrestha, Shailendra Khanal, Pushparam KC and Raju Aryal became Inspector Generals, with Paudyal taking the 13th leadership.

In addition to internal security responsibilities, the Armed Police Force is also the leading security organization in international border security. This organization is operating based on a law enacted 25 years ago. The Armed Police Force, which employs about 37,000 people, has deployed about 15,000 armed forces in international border security towards India and China.

However, the government has not taken a concrete decision to review and mobilize the role and responsibilities of the armed forces in accordance with the changing situation. Despite the Council of Ministers' repeated decisions, the government has not been able to systematically incorporate it into the Act.

According to the Armed Police Act 2058, the Armed Police Force has the responsibility to control armed conflict, armed rebellion or separatist activities, terrorist activities and riots that have occurred or may occur in any part of Nepal, to assist in the rescue of victims of natural disasters and epidemics that have occurred or may occur in any part of Nepal, to rescue a kidnapped person if a citizen of Nepal or anyone else is kidnapped, or to control any other heinous and serious crime or serious unrest that occurs or is suspected of occurring, to protect Nepal's borders, to provide assistance under the Nepali Army in the event of an external attack, and to provide security to buildings, structures and other places of public importance designated by the government.

The Armed Police Force is also responsible for protecting persons and designated institutions that the government deems necessary to provide security to. The Cabinet meeting of 11 Asoj 2069 also gave the Armed Police Force the responsibility of revenue, customs and industrial security and the Cabinet meeting of 15 Poush 2077 also gave it the responsibility of railway security. 

However, the government has not paid attention to amending the 25-year-old act and mobilizing the army by clearly defining its responsibilities and scope. Although the bill to amend the 25-year-old act reached the parliament last year, the House of Representatives was dissolved in the middle and is in a state of limbo. 

The government has committed to re-progressing the incomplete and necessary bill after senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Balendra Shah became the Prime Minister on 13 Chaitra, after making public a 100-point blueprint for governance reform. There is still uncertainty about when decisions will be made on structural and policy reforms by amending the old Act on the Armed Police Force and formulating a law. 

The main challenge for the current leadership will be to effectively fulfill the responsibilities assigned to the Armed Forces by overcoming the open border with India, geographical remoteness with China, and lack of resources. Although there have been some reform efforts and decisions to strengthen internal professional development and resources during the tenure of the current Inspector General Aryal, the work has not been able to move forward due to the lack of budget allocation from the government. 

Even though the presence of the Armed Police Force in the border area has been further increased after the political and administrative map of Nepal that includes Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura was released, budget allocation has not been made as per the demand for plans for safe infrastructure management for the troops deployed on the border to technology-friendly security systems. 

The government has been showing a lack of budget to add manpower to the border despite the increase in the existing manpower. Against this backdrop, not only the conflict in the scope of work of the Armed Police Force and the Nepal Police, the unclear policy of deployment in the field and the continuous interference from those in power, but also the challenge of controlling collusion in large public procurements in the clutches of businessmen and middlemen and adopting transparency in the decision-making process is facing the newly appointed IGP Paudyal. 

The undeclared conflict with the Nepal Police and the duplicity seen in deployment also need to be ended. He will be at the helm of the Armed Forces for about 23 months. In particular, transparency in public procurement, amendment of the 25-year-old Armed Police Act, inter-security coordination, development of a collective leadership system, freedom from party interests, fairness in transfers and career development of employees, mobilization in accordance with the spirit of the government and maintaining military discipline, and maintaining a clear mandate in internal and border security and mobilization are also challenges for him.

Corrected

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