The Special Committee (SC) meeting had decided to vacate cantonments by April 12 by sending home those opting for voluntary retirement and handing over those who are opting for integration to Nepal Army. [break]
However, the voluntary retirement process was stalled as there was a fresh decision to reduce the number of the Maoist combatants to be integrated in the army to 6,000 against the previous agreement of 6,500.
Special Committee Coordinator Bala Nanda Sharma said 94 Maoist combatants including four woman received checks for voluntary retirements on Monday in Rolpa but in other places, the process had been completely stalled.
A Special Committee team that arrived here on Sunday to expedite voluntary retirements of the Maoist combatants had nothing to do on Monday as combatants did not show up. "We would have started the retirement process but no one turned up," said Sharma. The team had planned to expedite voluntary retirement process by handing over bank checks.
While Division Commander Dhan Bahadur Maskey Magar came to Kathmandu to settle issues of integration, Vice Commander Janak Bista stayed away, apparently to show his frustration over internal problems in the party. Maskey went to Kathmandu to hold discussions with central level leaders on contentious issues related to army integration shortly after the SC team erected a camp.
Talking to Republica, Maskey said internal discussions were underway on how many combatants to integrate and how they should be integrated. “I am currently in Kathmandu. I will return to Chitwan after submitting a list of those going for integration and their rank to the party leaderships.”
Earlier, 1,137 Maoist combatants had chosen for voluntary retirements and 2,213 combatants had chosen integration from the Maoist Third Division Cantonment in Shaktikhor. Of the total 3,971 combatants said to be in the Third Division Cantonment, 417 combatants are out of contact.
On Sunday, tensions ran high in PLA cantonments in Ilam and Sindhuli after combatants protested against "nepotism and favoritism" in the selection of commanders for senior NA positions.
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