HIMALAYAN NEWS

POKHARA: Shortage of funds has affected tourist police’s campaign to address insecurity and other problems facing the tourists in the Lake City.

While the government has invested millions of rupees to make the Nepal Tourism Year-2011 a success, it has not bothered to provide funds to the cash-strapped Tourist Police Sub-section Office in Pokhara.

Bimal Khatiwada, sub-inspector at the office, says tourist police personnel have not been able to perform up to the mark due to the fund shortage. Ten tourist police personnel, deployed in Pokhara to address the foreign visitors’ woes, have been discharging their duties from a leaky tin-roofed shanty that Tourism Board Pokhara has built near its office.

Whenever it rains, these personnel have no option but to spend sleepless nights. They say getting food is also difficult. Of the 10 personnel, a police head constable and constables have been deployed from Kaski and adjoining districts, while a sub-inspector and an ASI are from the Tourism Ministry. Head constable and constables draw salaries from their respective districts, while ASI and sub-inspector have to go to Kathmandu for pay. TBP has provided Rs 1 lakh to the tourist police for a this year, but sub-inspector Khatiwada says the sum is not enough.

With a van and a motorcycle provided for on-duty personnel already broken, police personnel have been patrolling Pokhara on private motorbikes and bicycles.

Of late, Pokhara has been witnessing a surge in the number of insane and bankrupt tourists. Some of them even do not have visas. This has only added to tourist police’s problems. ASI Shantiram Phuyal says they have been sending the abnormal tourists to Kathmandu with help from PTB and other organisations.

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