"We were asked to resume the process from 1:30 pm today (Friday)," said Balananda Sharma, "Accordingly, the process has been started." [break]
But the process was not started at the cantonments in Kailali, Sindhuli and Ilam as the survey team leaders there got the instruction to resume the process late, according to Sharma.
"The process will resume in those cantonments from early Saturday morning," Sharma said.
Gopal Singh Bohara, who heads the survey team in Kailali, told Republica that the process could not be started because the commanders asked that the process be started from Saturday. Similarly, another team leader in Ilam, Shambhu Ram Simkhada, said though his team set up an office, not a single combatant showed up seeking voluntary retirement on Friday.
Acting divisional commander at the cantonment in Kailali, Jivan Budha said the process could not be resumed due to the delay in collecting voluntary retirement forms from combatants. "It will be resumed from 8 am Saturday," said Budha.
Though the process was started from Tuesday, two days later than initial plan, it was halted after a couple of hours after the Maoist party directed its commanders to stop the process until another order, citing security concerns inside the cantonments. The process was expected to resume from Wednesday following the takeover of the cantonments and arms by the Nepal Army and the Armed Police Force but this could not happen as the Maoist commanders concerned did not give their nod to the survey teams.
Officials involved in the voluntary retirement process told Republica that the combatants who were given voluntary retirement Friday left the cantonments immediately as they will not get allowance and food ration from Friday.
As of Friday evening, altogether 275 combatants took voluntary retirement at the Shaktikhor cantonment, 160 at Surkhet, 94 at Rolpa and 109 at Nawalparasi, according to Sharma.
In the meantime, Sharma said that it is not yet clear how many days the survey teams will give to the combatants to choose voluntary retirement.
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