The largest parties – UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and UML – have made claims for the post of the committee´s coordinator. A full committee would have 23 members.
Owing to the tug-of-war among the political parties for the post of the coordinator of the committee, the committee has not got full shape and Chief District Officer (CDO) is serving as its acting coordinator.
The District Peace Committee is responsible to assess the human and property damage in the conflict and recommend compensation to the affected families accordingly.
It is the political parties that have been assigned the task of assessing the losses during the conflict. "It is the job of the political parties to verify the claims of losses," said Hari Pyakurel, administration officer at the District Administration Office (DAO). He added that the lack of verification from the political parties has struck the compensation process.
Taking advantage of the situation, some of the affected families have made exaggerated claims of losses. DAO staff say some people have even presented claims for damages caused by natural disasters in the committee. An individual has sought Rs 7 million compensation apparently for losing a vehicle during the insurgency.
Owing to its inability to verify the compensation claims, the committee has been forwarding such claims to the center as they are.
The Banke DAO has so far distributed Rs 100,000 each to the families of 183 people killed during the conflict.
In total, 360 families have claimed compensation for loss of lives. Additionally, 193 widows have also sought relief. Similarly, 143 families have claimed compensation for disappearances. There are still more families who have claimed compensation for property loss.
DAO officials say people with political connections have taken more benefit, allowing them to get more compensation than the actual losses they had suffered. "A fully functional peace committee would have been able to screen out false claims and identify the genuine conflict-affected families," Pyakurel said.
Each political party accuses the rival parties for the impasses in giving full shape to the committee.
Dr Arun Koirala of the Nepali Congress says the deadlock was due to a dispute between UCPN (Maoist) and UML.
Ashok Koirala, district secretary of the UML, says the dispute arose after other parties could not agree to UML´s claim for the post.
Ganesh Khanal of UCPN (Maoist) said his party made the claim for the post going by the logic that the biggest party should be given the post of the coordinator.
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