14 cantonments to be closed

KATHMANDU, Feb 13: With the retirement of 7,365 Maoist combatants, the Special Committee has decided to close half of the total 28 cantonments (including seven main cantonments and 21 satellite camps) and has formed a taskforce to suggest the names of the cantonments that should be shut down.



A meeting of the Special Committee on Sunday decided to bring down the number of cantonments concluding that 14 cantonments would be sufficient to accommodate the remaining 9,711 combatants who have either opted for integration or rehabilitation. [break]



Maoist representative on the Special Committee Barshaman Pun said a taskforce headed by Ramananda Mishra, a member at the secretariat of the Special Committee, will recommend the names of cantonments that should be shut down.



Secretariat members Taj Bahadur Oli, Gopal Man Singh Bohara, Dr Shambhu Ram Simkhada and Joint Secretary Jaya Dev Shrestha have been named as members of the taskforce that has been given a week´s time to recommend names of the cantonments.



The meeting also decided that the Nepal Police or the Armed Police Force (APF) will take control of the cantonments that would be closed, according to Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, a Nepali Congress representative on the Special Committee.



Nepali Congress and CPN-UML representatives on the Special Committee had proposed at the meeting that the Special Committee make a public appeal to the combatants opting for integration to choose voluntary retirement. The proposal was floated after the secretariat received a number of requests from the Maoist combatants opting for integration to allow them to choose voluntary retirement.



But Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai proposed to take a decision on the proposal later.



"We have agreed to appeal to the combatants to choose voluntary retirement once the integration plan is finalized," said Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, a Nepali Congress representative on the Special Committee, after the meeting.



In the meeting, the prime minister had informed the committee members that the Nepal Army has started works on integration of the combatants, according to Pun.



Over 100 checks missing



The secretariat of the Special Committee has received complaints from retired combatants that over 100 checks issued in their names have been missing.



According to secretariat convener Balananda Sharma, the secretariat is investigating into the complaints.



Similarly, the secretariat has also received complaints from combatants that their retirement money has been withdrawn from their accounts by someone else.

"We have asked the concerned banks to investigate into the complaints," said Sharma.

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