By Purushottam P. Khatri
Kathmandu, Dec. 15: Members of the security bodies -- Nepal Police (NP), Armed Police Force (APF), and Nepali Army (NA) -- deployed for the prevention of coronavirus, who had been promised COVID-19 risk allowance and insurance amount, are yet to get them.
The government had decided to provide risk allowance to security personnel as well as to personnel working in 10 other sectors in the control and prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic on March 29, 2020.
However, nine months after the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 24, the security personnel are yet to receive the pledged benefits.
The Cabinet meeting held in the second week of April had decided to provide 100 per cent allowance in addition to the regular salary to the NA personnel directly involved in the treatment of the patients and corpse management.
Also, NA’s security personnel working in different other fields in COVID-19 control were to receive 50 per cent, 75 per cent and 25 per cent allowance in addition to their salaries, according to NA spokesperson and Brigadier General Shantosh Ballave Poudyal.
The provision of providing risk allowance only to 10 per cent of the total forces as in NP and APF is not compulsory for the NA, he said.
The security officials, however, have been complaining that they have not received the risk allowance so far.
"We have already submitted the lists for the security allowance to the government through the Ministry of Defense, seeking the release of the promised money,” Poudyal said.
“NA alone is supposed to receive risk allowance worth Rs. 1.80 billion as of November 10, 2020," Poudyal said.
However, Dr. Samir Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesperson of Ministry of Health and Population, said that some health workers had started receiving the allowance.
The government, issuing a new ‘Guideline for Public Expenditure Management-2020’ in the Nepal Gazette on November 23, had decided to provide risk allowance only to 10 per cent of the total security forces in NP and APF.
“We are in regular contact with the Ministry of Finance, waiting to receive at least the first tranche in the beginning to boost their morale,” Nepal Police spokesperson and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, said.
DIG Raju Aryal, spokesperson of APF, said they, too, are waiting for the release of the risk allowance to their staff members. 13,841 security personnel infected
According to records of security bodies, as of December 14, a total of 13,841 staff in the three agencies have been infected with the coronavirus.
Of these, 7,004 security members are from the NP, 4,858 from the NA, and 1,979 from the APF. According to the records, 6,544 Nepal Police personnel have recovered while 527 are still receiving treatment and three have succumbed to the virus. At APF, among the total number of COVID-19 infected, 1,917 have recovered, 58 are receiving treatment and four have died from the virus. Likewise, the NA has reported two fatalities, 4,641 recoveries and 215 under treatment.
Ironically, all these COVID-19 infected security personnel still remain deprived of COVID-19 insurance amount. Not a single policeman has received the insurance amount, SSP Kunwar said.
Nepal Police had signed the agreement with National Insurance Company Limited on August 13, 2020 for the insurance of all its security personnel.
Similarly, the NA and the APF had also insured all their security personnel on August 14 and 15 respectively.