The two major opposition parties -- NC and the UML -- have threatened to "take a strong step" if the government and the Maoist party failed to expedite the peace process and statute drafting and revoke within a week a recent controversial cabinet decision on legalizing the land transactions done under the arbitration of the Maoist ´people´s government´ during the insurgency.[break]
Leaders from the two parties have accused Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and the Maoist leaders of taking ´unilateral decisions´ in contravention of the November 1 seven-point deal reached among the major political parties and keeping the special committee, which is mandated to oversee the tasks of army integration and rehabilitation, in the dark.
"We have been demanding that the prime minister call a meeting of the special committee but he is instead taking decisions arbitrarily and unilaterally," said a joint statement issued by UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel after a two-party meeting at Balkhu on Monday.
NC and UML have taken strong exception to the prime minister´s intention of ´keeping other parties in the dark´ about his correspondence with the Ministry of Defense with regard to advancing the task of integrating former Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army (NA).
The statement said no discussion and consultation among the leaders of political parties have been held over the issue of the letter that was sent to the NA and nor the special committee members have been informed about it. "We reject any decision to provide additional facilities to the combatants, and any decision taken under any pretext without political agreement and against the policy of the special committee can´t be acceptable to us," said the statement.
Leaders from the two opposition parties also blamed the Maoists and prime minister for taking unilateral decisions against the decisions taken by the special committee and trying to impose them on other parties.
NC and UML leaders also fiercely criticized the government and the Maoist party for "not seriously working to expedite peace process as per the seven-point deal".
Asked if the parties weren´t taking the progress made with regard to voluntary exit of the combatants as a significant achievement, UML Secretary Shankar Pokharel, who participated at the two-party meeting, said the Maoists were still manipulating the process to serve the party´s interest.
"They are collecting maximum possible percentage of the money distributed to the combatants with a plan to create a fund for the party and they want to use the money to create a ground for revolt," Pokharel told Republica. He claims that the Maoist leaders do not want permanent resolution of the combatants issue. "On the one hand the Maoist party is going to use the combatants´ money for its future plan of revolt, on the other hand the combatants are going to be a headache for society," he claimed.
He also said that the Maoists were obstructing the peace process by putting forth new conditions in the peace process such as demanding top posts in the directorate to be formed under the NA comprising Maoist combatants and personnel from the government security agencies. According to him, the Maoist leaders are also pressuring other parties to increase the strength of the directorate and upgrade its status "against the seven-point deal".
The two parties have also accused the Maoists of hindering the statute drafting process. The NC and UML said that Maoist lawmakers at the Constitutional Committee (CC) of the Constituent Assembly have been hindering the constitution writing process by standing against the decisions taken at the CC´s subcommittee headed by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal himself.
Related story
Tourism department gives five-day ultimatum to three casinos to...
-1778925320.webp)
