Calling a press conference in Urlabari, Morang district to make public the seizure of their paychecks, they said their combatant colleagues who have opted for integration confiscated the paychecks, allegedly under the direction of the cantonment commanders. [break]
"We demand that the bank concerned not make any payment without checking the citizenship of the account holders," said Durga Limbu, one of the retiring combatants whose paycheck was seized. "Our paychecks were confiscated under a deliberate plan."
The retired combatants said at the press conference that they have been made to sign a paper committing them to giving a portion of their retirement package to the Maoist party.
"We are able to make public the seizure of our paychecks only now, after leaving the cantonment," said Khagendra Gautam, another retired combatant. "We run the risk of being attacked."
Another retired combatant, Kshitiz Limbu, said they have been told that they would get to keep only the second allotment of their retirement package. The government will give out the second allotments only in the next fiscal year.
"We fought alongside the commanders [against the government] during the conflict but today they are trying to ruin our future out of their greed for money," said Limbu. He accused the commanders of riding flashy cars and demanded an investigation into their property holdings.
According to him, the commanders used to take money arbitrarily from combatant allowances. They have also demanded that the party investigate the injustices meted out to them at the cantonments by their commanders.
Meanwhile, our reporter Kalendra Sejuwal reports from Surkhet that of the 837 combatants of the Sixth Division who received their checks as a part of the voluntary retirement package, only a few have gone to the bank to deposit them into their personal accounts. The combatants say they are afraid to open bank accounts as the commanders have seized the checks of some of their fellow combatants.
According to the Agriculture Development Bank branch office at Chhinchu, only 78 combatants transferred the money to their personal accounts, a total of Rs 23 million. Of them, 21 have drawn Rs 4.5 in cash from the bank. All the 837 combatants had received account payee checks of the Agricultural Development Bank.
“Though the checks have already been distributed to many, very few have come here for payment,” said Ganga Prasad Chaulagain, the bank branch chief. “We are not sure of the reasons behind this,” he said.
A brigade commander said on condition of anonymity that the combatants are extremely afraid that their money will be seized by the top commanders. “No sooner is the money transferred to their accounts than they [commanders] demand a share of the payment,” said the commander. “That´s the reason why many friends have kept the checks with themselves to cash at a later date.”
The combatants in the Sixth Division cantonment became worried about their hard-earned money getting snatched away after the commanders tries to take 50 percent of the money from three women combatants who had reached the bank to cash their checks. On Tuesday there was an attempt to seize the money from the three combatants at the bank. The women combatants fled the scene and took refuge in a nearby police station. They are still under police protection.
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