KATHMANDU, Sept 12: Though the government has expedited implementation of the Special Security Plan (SSP) across the country, as many as 16 districts remain bereft of "fully qualified" Chief District Officers (CDOs), who are supposed to coordinate and oversee implementation of the plan.
Sixteen tarai districts, most of them troubled ones, have only acting CDOs since joint-secretaries of the government have cold-shouldered appointment as CDOs. There are a total of 25 districts, including some hill districts, where CDOs are supposed to be joint secretary-level officers.
Officials at the Home Ministry said district administration offices in Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha, Sarlahi, Bara, Rautahat, Rupandehi, Nawalparasi, Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Surkhet, Kailali and Kanchanpur have been run by acting CDOs since months.
The newly-introduced SSP has given CDOs the added responsibility of acting as coordinators of the SPP in their respective districts. Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and National Investigation Department (NID) personnel are supposed to operate jointly under the coordination of the CDO.
“It is difficult to achieve the expected goals as the government has failed even to depute CDOs to the troubled districts which the security plan is basically aimed at,” said a senior official at the ministry requesting anonymity.
Home Ministry spokesperson Ratna Raj Pandey, however, said, “It won´t make any difference as the acting CDOs have been given the same powers as CDOs.”
The rationale behind deploying first class officers as CDOs in these districts, according to officials, is that officials who are senior in the bureaucratic hierarchy can coordinate more effectively junior level security units and other government offices. “It will obviously be difficult now to ensure coordination,” a top official at the ministry said.
Senior officials at the ministry complain that none of the joint-secretaries at the ministry are willing to go to the Tarai districts as CDOs because of unnecessary political interference and security threats. "It is really difficult to work as a CDO in the Tarai districts," said an official who has served as a CDO in the Tarai. “A CDO is under pressure from many groups.”
Moreover, the CDO is also answerable for all the things that go wrong in the district where he is stationed. “There never is strong support from the minister concerned and the secretary at the ministry if a stand is taken in a just cause,” the official added. Addressing a function in Banepa a few weeks ago, Minister for General Administration Rabindra Shrestha had publicly announced that he would immediately appoint interested joint secretaries as CDOs.
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