Addressing a meeting of the parliament´s State Affairs Committee (SAC) on Monday, the lawmakers asked the government to first prepare national security policy and carry out Office and Management (O&M) survey of the NA before any internal restructuring. The lawmakers stressed on the need for consensus among all political parties before any restructuring of the sensitive government bodies like army. [break]
The SAC had invited Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to hold discussions on the government´s proposal to create vacancies of two Lieutenant Generals, six Major Generals, 10 Brigadier Generals, 14 Colonels and 50 Lieutenant Colonels as a part of the internal restructuring of the NA. The creation of the senior positions in the army will cost the government an additional Rs 120.5 million a year.
Bhattarai argued internal restructuring was necessary as the army´s strength had grown from 18,000 to over 92,000 in 47 years when the last restructuring was carried out. He maintained that the creation of the vacancies would not only ensure career prospect of soldiers serving in all ranks, but also help boost the morale of the national army.
"The proposed internal restructuring would make the organization compatible with international standard and combat units and formations such as divisions, brigade, and battalion further self-reliant and be able to operate independent," he further said.
While asking the prime minister to forge consensus among all parties on the issue, the UML lawmaker Pradip Gyawali argued that O&M survey is a must before taking a decision on internal restructuring of the army. "We could settled the issue if we get to study the O&M survey report of the NA," he said.
NC lawmaker Arjun Prasad Joshi argued that internal restructuring in the army without O&M survey would create problems for both the government and the army. "We take the proposal of the army positively but it should be done in line with the country´s national security policy and army´s democratization work plan," he said.
Maoist lawmaker Pampha Bhusal argued it was not appropriate to carry out internal restructuring of the army without first determining the size of the army based on external threats. "We need to be clear on how we can safeguard national sovereignty and where our army can play role to safeguard our sovereignty," she said.
Lawmakers argued that there was no haste to bring internal restructuring in the army´s organization as the country is already in peace after a violent Maoist conflict.
They also argued that it was not good to create additional vacancies at a time when there are suggestions from various parties to downsize the army that saw increase in its strength from around 40,000 to 92,000- during the Maoist conflict.
According to SAC Chairman Ram Nath Dhakal, next meeting will decide on whether to direct the government to go ahead with its plan.
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