Addressing a meeting of Parliamentary Development Committee, Minister Chemjong said it was unfortunate that the Maoists have not been cooperating even as the government provided lump sum allowance of nine months to the disqualified combatants to help facilitate the release process.
“It is the prime responsibility of the Maoists to help release the disqualified combatants from the cantonments,” he said. “The government is ready to take the responsibility to help rehabilitate them in the society.”
Minister Chemjong was responding to lawmakers´ queries on how long “the government would feed the combatants by keeping them idle in the cantonments”. The lawmakers representing various political parties in the committee had criticized the government for failing to expedite rehabilitation and integration of the Maoist combatants.
Minister Chemjong said the Maoists must demonstrate their commitment to the special representatives of the UN General Secretary General for Children and armed conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy, who is arriving Nepal on Monday, to release the disqualified combatants by February, 2010.
Altogether 19,575 Maoist combatants are currently living in seven main and 21 satellite cantonments as per the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). These combatants get a monthly allowance of Rs 5,000 each and daily allowance for food and other expenses ranging from Rs 70 to Rs 112.
According to the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, the government so far has spent over Rs 4.29 billion for the purpose.
Chemjong said that the Maoists were solely to be blamed for the delay in rehabilitating and integrating the Maoist combatants. He said the meeting of the Special Committee on Army Integration and Rehabilitation has failed to sit for the past several weeks due to the Maoists failure to attend the meeting. “The process of rehabilitation and integration could have been expedited had the Maoists attended the meeting on regular basis,” he said, adding, “Delaying the process could pose a problem to the Maoists themselves in the future,” he further said.
Meanwhile, the meeting of the technical committee under Special Committee on Army Integration and Rehabilitation scheduled to be held on Sunday was put off for Monday morning due to busy schedule of prime minister and other members. The technical committee has failed to meet for the past several weeks as Maoists snubbed the meeting citing busy schedule.
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