By Our Reporter The decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs to  recommend 11 deputy inspectors general (DIGs) for the post of additional inspector general smells rat as some DIGs, including Nawaraj Silwal and Pankaj Shrestha were excluded in the list. Although Home Minister Janardan Shrama claimed that the promotion of the police officers was fair, most of those who got promoted come from a particular region of western Nepal. When a larger number of promoted officers came from western Nepal, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s upper hand could be suspected. Looking at the promoted officers, one can conclude that PM Deuba has encouraged regionalism in the security organisation. Earlier, Deuba was dragged into controversy when he applied his power to appoint Jaya Bahadur Chand to the post of the new IGP of the Nepal Police. But his attempt faced a blow when the Supreme Court quashed Chanda’s appointment. The unnecessary meddling of Deuba not only caused a division in the police but also resulted in the poor show of the Nepali Congress in the local elections. The NC lost elections in Kathmandu only due to the controversial move of Deuba to register an impeachment motion against the former Chief Justice Sushila Karki over the IGP appointment row. Nawaraj Silwal, who had challenged Deuba’s move by filing a writ at the Supreme Court seemed to be omitted deliberately from the list of the list recommended for the promotion. Those promoted for the posts of AIGs included Bam Bahadur Bhandari, Jay Bahadur Chand, Devendra Subedi, Pashupati Upadhayay, Kesari Raj Ghimire, Madhav Prasad Joshi, Bijay Lal Kayastha, Kamal Singh Bam, Mingmar Lama, Rana Bahadur Chand and Bijay Kumar Bhatta. DIG Chand who was promoted to the post of inspector general in February but only to be quashed by the Supreme Court, has been ranked second on the AIG recommendation lists made public on Saturday. DIG Bhandari, who was the top contender for the post of police chief when Chand was appointed in February, is on the top of the AIG recommendation list. A meeting of the promotion committee, led by home secretary, had decided to recommend the 11 DIGs for their promotion. The government has said seven of the AIGs will be deputed in seven provinces, while four will be stationed in Kathmandu valley. Meanwhile, 15 senior superintendents police (SSPs) have been recommended for the post of DIG. They included Sarbendra Khanal, Pushkar Karki, Uttam Karki, Bhog Bahadur Thapa, Puskal Raj Regmi, Pawan Kharel, Chhabilal Joshi, Manoj Neupane, Gyan Bikram Shah, Thule Rai, Sharad Chand, Dhiru Basnet, Pushpa Chandra Ranjit and Suresh Bikram Shah.