The parliamentary committee has also sought the details of annual expenditures and the amount of money released in the names of the Maoist combatants over the last five years.[break]
The decision to seek details from the ministry was endorsed at the meeting after consulting the Maoist lawmakers.
“Why not? We need to seek details of the expenditures and the PAC can do it,” Maoist member at the committee Rajkaji Maharjan said after PAC Chairman Ram Krishna Yadav, UML leader Surendra Pandey, among other key members of the committee, consulted Maharjan.
The PAC decision comes at a time when opposition parties have been fiercely criticizing top Maoist leaders for regularly receiving a huge sum of money in the name of Maoist combatants. Though the government records show that 19,602 combatants have been drawing salaries, over 2,700 of them were not found in the cantonments.
Though NC and UML had been claiming of desertion by thousands of combatants, Maoists always refuted the claim. But opposition parties´ claim came true as over 2,700 combatants didn´t turn up for re-categorization.
Lawmakers from the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC), and other opposition parties, including the CPN-UML, have demanded that the Maoist leadership return the money released in the name of absentee combatants.
Leaders from the opposition parties have also been demanding that the Maoist leadership return the combatants´ money retained as deposits. They have accused the top Maoist leaders of embezzling the salaries meant for the combatants.
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