Maoist combatants collect the first installment of their financial package at the Fourth division camp in Jhyaltung, Nawalparasi. RSS

The process of discharging 7,365 Maoist combatants who opted for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) during the recent regrouping process has begun from Friday, with the handing over of the first installment of their financial package.

Separate teams mobilised by the Army Integrating Special Committee (AISC) have already reached all seven People’s Liberation Army (PLA) cantonments across the country. The cheque distribution has finally started, albeit delay owing to dispute on rank harmonization.

Coordinator of the Secretariat for Army Integration Special Committee (AISC), Balananda Sharma marked the beginning of programme by handing over the cheque to Deputy Commander of Maoist Third Division Shaktikhor, Udaya Bahadur Chalaune, who has opted for voluntary retirement.

Chalaune is one among those receiving Rs. 800,000. He received a cheque worth Rs 400,000 as his first installment.

The combatants have been provided with cheque of either the Rastriya Banijya Bank or Agricultural Development Bank or the Nepal Bank along with travel costs.

The travel costs provided to combatants include Rs. 2,000 for those from the Tarai, Rs 5,000 for those from the Mountainous region and Rs 8,000 for those from the Hilly region.

A team comprising 14 persons including 12 from the centre and two from the local cantonment management has been deployed for the task. The team has set goal to complete the task within coming 12 days, said coordinator Sharma.

Some 1,137 among 3,350 ex-fighters in Maoist Third Division have chosen for voluntary retirement.

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When director Deepak Rauniyar expressed his wish last year that his film Highway be selected for the Berlin International Film Festival, little did he know that his dream would come true.

Highway will be screened at the 62nd Berlin Festival in the Panorama segment, along with 27 other movies. This entry is a first for any Nepali film at an international film festival. This year, Highway is also the only selection from South Asia and has qualified for the Best First Feature Award. Set against the backdrop of a banda, Highway explores five different relationship stories that connect during an ill-fated bus journey from eastern Nepal to the capital Kathmandu.

Highway is co-produced by Louverture Films, a New York-based film production company, and Sameer M Dixit and Lonim P Dixit.

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Nothing dramatic happened when State Restructuring Commission submitted its report today, at least nothing that we haven’t seen before. After months of deliberation, bitter debates and media mongering between formation of ‘an expert panel’ and state restructuring commission, the CA had formed a 7 member commission to propose a tentative federal model in November. But the commission was destined to fail from the day one.

You don’t need an expert analysis to figure out that a politically appointed commission was only going to be an extension of the conflict between the appointers, and from the day the commission began its work the media leaks about the bitter spats and boycotts had sent all the wrong signals.

On Tuesday afternoon, when the seven members submitted 200 pages long report to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, the ‘note of dissent’ written by three commission members grabbed headlines. Nobody was interested in the content of the proposal, because it has been already been discredited.

“We had to come up with a separate proposal because the report was dictated by the majority members”, admitted Sabitri Thapa Gurung, one of the dissenters. “We signed the report with ‘note of dissent’ only at the request of the commission chairman Madan Pariyar”, Thapa further clarified to the media gathered outside the PM’s office in Singha Durbar.

Three dissenting members Sabitri Thapa Gurung, Ramesh Dhungel and Sarbaraj Khadka wrote a note of dissent on crucial parts of the report including model and structure of federal states, privileged political rights for the majority community in the proposed state, right to self-determination for the proposed states and residual rights. While the report proposes 10-states based on ethnic and regional identity, the 6-states alternate model proposes a north-south extension based on geography and population.

Two and half months have been in vain and the May deadline is inching closer. We are back to where we began, a sharply divided political landscape and unrelenting actors. The government and CA is already in panic as they are making last ditch effort to convince the supreme court to reconsider its earlier verdict not to extend CA deadline beyond May. The judicial activism of SC verdict may prove suicidal if the CA fails to meet the deadline, but sadly the parties have outrun their mandate by a mile and the CA seems to have lost even last of the public faith.

The parties have no choice but to sit with the two reports and find a way to patch them together. The buck has been passed back at them and they better score. Only a constitution can help restore credibility of the CA and its members, nothing less will.

Anurag Acharya

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The process of discharging 7,365 Maoist combatants who opted for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) during the recent regrouping process is set to begin from Monday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Maoist party leadership with PLA division commanders of the seven main cantonments at the residence of party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Sunday. The decision followed the decision of the Special Committee for Supervision, Integration and Rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants to start the farewell process of PLA combatants choosing VRS within three days. Party hardliners led by senior vice chairman Mohan Baidhya and General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa, who had earlier been opposing the regrouping process, were also present at the meeting.

The PLA combatants will be sent home with the first installment of their financial package including certificates recognising their contribution to the country.

However, the PLA division commanders say the party leadership should put the discharge process on hold until the parties reach an agreement on rank determination.

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Constitutional Committee (CC) Sunday decided to amend the constitution drafting calendar based on the agreement among the major three political parties.

The CC meeting held at Singh Darbar on Sunday decided to intensify discussions on the disputed issues in the dispute resolution Sub-Committee and the CC and settle them by 12 February 12. According to previous time table, the deadline for settling disputed issues to be incorporated in the new constitution was Sunday.

The meeting of major three parties – UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML held on Saturday evening had decided to amend the constitution writing calendar.

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The government officially launched International Year of Cooperative 2012 on Friday. Cooperative has been recognised as one of the major pillars of economy after public and private sector.

A National Committee under the coordination of Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives has been formed to mark the International Cooperatives Year 2012 hosted by the United Nations (UN).

The Department of Cooperatives said that the government has also planned to establish more than 50 cooperatives as the model across the county in the year 2012 along with promoting its importance and delivering positive impacts on general public. A new cooperative act is also expected.

There are over 23,000 cooperatives in the country in which more than three million people are directly involved.

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Let’s get this straight. The United Maoists are back from the brink of a split. They head the coalition, the prime minister is Maoist, so is the Supply Minister, and the protestors setting fire to cars on the streets are also mostly Maoists. How does that work?

The leaders of the four big parties are constantly having emergency meetings to deal with contentious issues raised by their own cadres against other cadres about what has already been decided in the CA committees.

After 10 years of bloodshed and 16,000 killed, the Maoists wanted peace and we said ok, fine, it’s high time. And despite the blood in their hands we shook it. And to make it not look like a defeat, we went along with calling the camps ‘cantonments’, and demobilisation ‘integration’.   Next, the Maoists said they now want to govern and the parties said all right, it’s your turn now. Barely six months later, the Maoists quit the government and not for the first time. In elections the next year, the Maoists said they wanted our votes. We said ok, we will vote for you so you don’t go back to war. They won. Whew, that was close.

Just when we thought things were going well Maoists weren’t happy about something: they didn’t have total control. So they started tampering with the army. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned and in retrospect has said he shouldn’t have. After three years, the Maoists changed their mind again and wanted the premiership back. They waged war, removed the king, declared a republic, won elections, formed the government, deconstructed it, and came back to head a coalition with their sworn enemies, the Madhesis.

They invented phantom fighters and pocketed the allowances, they awarded themselves golden handshakes, and they agreed on 6,500 fighters to be integrated into the army that they fought to eliminate. Just when they should be returning confiscated land, they tried to legitimise all decisions they took during the war. Despite the message from the Chinese premier, Dahal is still trying to play Delhi off against Beijing. He wants to be executive president badly, but will settle for prime minister for now. For him it has always been my way or the highway.

That is the story so far, keep tuned in.

Naresh Newar is a freelance journalist.

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