210 SURVEYORS GOING TO 7 CANTONMENTS TO RECORF FORMER PLS FIGHER PREFERENCES

210 SURVEYORS GOING TO CANTONMENTS TO RECORD PREFERENCES OF FORMER FGHERS

Kathmandu, 16 Nov.: Altogether 210 surveyors are going to 28 cantonments and satellite camps Wednesday to record preferences of 19,000 plus former PLA fighters.
Training of the surveyors conducted by the secretariat of a
special committee for integration, resettlement and supervision headed by the prime minister concluded Tuesday.
They are being regrouped according to their preferences for integration in Nepal Army (NA) under a director mainly, resettlement or voluntary retirement.
All survey teams will reach cantonments by Wednesday and
work will begin Thursday. Combatants at 21 satellite camps
have been called to cantonments to record their preferences.
Only 6,500 PLA fighters among 19,000 plus fighters are being
integrated under a separate directorate in Nepal Army.
Plans are to complete preliminary work for integration by 23 November ahead of the 30 November deadline to complete the peace process and constitution drafting.
Both the 23 and 30 November deadlines
will be missed.
“The army integration is very insulting for PLA and is against the peace agreement,” First Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and General Secretary raam Bahadur Thapa said.
They asked commanders and all fighters in a joint statement
Tuesday to keep away from the ‘self-surrender process’.
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BAIDYA GROUP FORCE CHEAP SALE OF SEIZED LAND
Kathmandu, 16 Nov.: UCPN (Maoist) activists close to the hard-line faction led by party Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya have allegedly forced landowners to sell their "captured land" in cheap price, Kamal Panthi writes in The Kathmandu Post from Bardiya.
The Maoist leaders and activists close to the Baidya faction were found issuing threats to landowners for selling the captured land cheaply so that their kith and kin would buy it. "The Maoist local leaders and their relatives purchased such land in cheap price," a highly placed source said.
Rajapur area in-charge of Maoist Ganesh Aryal, close to Baidya, and his close aides have been involved in threatening the landowners to sell the seized land.
Aryal had allegedly threatened one Khemraj Shrestha of Manau VDC to sell his two bighas (about 1.3 hectares) of land that the Maoists captured during insurgency for peanuts. The Shrestha family complained that they were forced to sell the land, which costs approximately Rs 1.5 million in the market price, to Aryal's brother Mohan and local businessman Shyam Rimal in just Rs 0.5 million.
Another conflict victim, on condition of anonymity, said that Aryal threatened him to sell his land in cheap rate as well.
The source said that Aryal earned a huge amount of money by fleecing the conflict victims. Aryal purchased a house in Nepalgung and bought land in Kohalpur and other area with the money he earned through such land transaction, the source added.
Aryal, however, refuted the claim. "I bought house and land with the money genuinely earned by my brothers. Those who are accusing me are the reactionary ones," he said.
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VICTIM HURT AS TORMENTOR BECOMES MINISTER
Kathmandu, 16 Nov.: Purnimaya Lama of Chhakrebajh VDC-5 in Kavre district has lost her hope for justice after UCPN (Maoist) Lawmaker Surya Man Dong, one of the convicts who allegedly murdered her husband Arjun during the insurgency, has been appointed as the state minister for energy, Manoj Basnet writes in The Kahmandu Post..
“It is sad to see the guilty being a minister,” said Purnimaya in tears. “The government has compensated for the suffering of the victimised family by appointing Dong as a minister,” she added ironically.
Arjun, who was chairman of Krishna Secondary School in the village, was allegedly abducted by the Maoist cadres from the school premises in 2005. Purnimaya said she had approached authorities for justice, but to no avail.
She lodged a complaint in the District Police Office (DPO) three years ago, naming Dong, former Information and Communications Minister Agni Sapkota and Maoist cadres Yadav Poudel, Bhola Aryal, Karnakhar Gautam and Norbu Moktan as the main accused. It was claimed in the complaint that Arjun was murdered by the cadres at Charkilla area in Budhakhani VDC in the district two months after his abduction and his body was buried in the area thereafter.
After the police refused to register their complaint, the victim’s family filed a writ in the Supreme Court in 2006 demanding action against the six. Ruling over the writ, the court ordered the DPO to investigate into the case. Human rights defenders also lodged a writ in the court in May when Sapkota was a minister pointing him as a human rights violator.
The court ordered Kavre police to investigate into the case and submit a report within 15 days. However, police did not name Sapkota, Dong and other accused in the report handed to the court on October 12.
“Only we people are under the law, but those with political influence are not,” said Purnimaya, adding that she fears that the Maoists would attack her for her standing against them.
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