PM'S INTEGRATION PROPOSAL REJECTED

PM's PROPOSAL ON FIGHTER CATEGORIZATION COLD SHOULDERED

Kathmandu, 19 Sept : Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai on Sunday proposed the Special Committee to immediately start categorization of ex-Maoist combatants but failed to get it endorsed after some members of the committee sought prior groundworks, Republica reports.

Then the committee directed its secretariat to prepare a report detailing what should be done before the much-expected categorization begins.


´The secretariat will prepare the report and present it to the Special Committee´s next meeting," said Chief Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire, who is the spokesperson of the committee.

Though the next meeting has not been fixed, the committee will not meet until the prime minister returns from New York after attending the 66th General Assembly of the United Nations on September 28.

Nepali Congress representative in the Special Committee Dr Ram Sharan Mahat told Republica that there should be an agreement on modality of integration and rehabilitation, rank harmonization and other issues related to the peace process before starting categorization.

"The ex-combatants should be given information on modality, rank, rehabilitation and standard norms, among other things, before they are categorized," said Mahat.

This is the second time the Special Committee met since Bhattarai became prime minister. The first meeting was held on September 1.

In the meeting, committee members had asked the prime minister, who chairs the committee and why the meeting of the Special Committee was not called for a long time. In response, the prime minister told the committee that there was no agreement among political parties for starting categorization and on rehabilitation package, hence the delay in calling the meeting.
In recent days, the parties have held backdoor negotiations on key issues of the peace process but failed to reach consensus.

A meeting of the UCPN (Maoist) and Nepali Congress on the peace process last week failed to make any headway. In the meeting, the Maoists proposed to immediately begin categorization of ex-Maoist combatants and agree on a rehabilitation package while discussing other contentious issues simultaneously.

But NC and the CPN-UML stuck to their previous position that categorization should be started only after a package deal is reached on all the contentious issues of the peace process.
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