Sources said Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, Chief Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire and Convener of the Secretariat for the Special Committee Balananda Sharma have reached an informal understanding that the retiring combatants should be allowed to remain in the cantonments only till February 12. [break]
The understanding was reached after confusion ensued about how long the retiring combatants should be allowed to stay in the cantonments once they receive their cheques.
"The teams of the secretariat, who are visiting cantonments from Friday to complete the voluntary retirement process, will inform the retiring combatants that they will get salary and ration only for this month of the Nepali calendar," said a source at the secretariat preferring anonymity.
The secretariat is set to dispatch seven teams to the Maoist cantonments to hand out the retirement cheques to 7,365 combatants on Thursday morning despite skepticisms about possible non-cooperation from Maoist commanders.
The teams are supposed to start giving voluntary retirement from Friday.
"Whether we get cooperation from the Maoist party or not, we are going to the cantonments this time because we have to implement the decision of the Special Committee," said a source at the secretariat.
The seven teams that are leaving Kathmandu on Thursday will visit separate cantonments and move to the next after completing the process within two days.
"We will stay in one cantonment for two days and then head to another whether the combatants come to receive their cheques or not," said another source at the secretariat.
As per the secretariat, the plan is to complete the retirement process within 12 days.
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