“The government has started to provide allowance to the families of martyrs and conflict victims but has stopped ration allowance for the combatants,” said the coordinator of the management committee of Shaktikhor Cantonment Sharad Chandra Sharma.[break]
The camp was to receive ration allowance for 3,975 combatants at the rate of Rs 72 per day per person and a monthly allowance of Rs 7,000 for each combatant.
“We can´t go on empty stomach. We have started to borrow for daily meals with the camp as guarantee,” spokesperson of the cantonment Janak Bista said. He complained that though the reins of the cantonments have been handed over to the government, it has not taken the guardianship of the combatants.
“They give just Rs 5,000 which is not enough even for square meals a day in today´s expensive time. The combatants are under pressure to meet their medical and other expenses,” Bista claimed.
Combatant Radhika Neupane said that she has not been able to pay her college fees due to the lack of money. “The combatants with children face more problems. We feel embarrassed to borrow from others outside the camp,” rued Pooja, another combatant.
“The leaders hold meetings at hotels, but we have to borrow for square meals,” vice-commander Uday Chalaune fumed. The combatants are hopeful about things getting easier if the delayed allowances of two months are released soon. Meanwhile, the combatants also vented their ire on the party leaders for using them as bargaining tool.
“The leaders are just treating us as a bargaining chip and using the issue of integration number and rehabilitation package as a ladder to get to power,” spokesperson Bista said.
Vice-commander Chalaune warned that the combatants may resort to hunger strike like the one staged by Anna Hazare in India if the issue of integration was not settled soon. “We will be forced to do something to get out of this suffering,” Chalaune reasoned.
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