The Special Committee has decided to make the monitors available at the cantonments by Thursday, but the decision will not become effective for some time. [break]
"There are no logistics in place at the cantonments, and the monitors will not be at their duty stations until everything is set for monitoring," Bala Nanda Sharma, convener of the secretariat under the Special Committee, told Republica.
A meeting on Monday of the Special Committee, a government-formed body, changed its initial plan of recruiting ex-army personnel to monitor the satellite cantonments and decided to deploy serving personnel from the Nepal Army (NA), Nepal Police (NP), Armed Police Force (APF) and the Maoist army.
"Altogether 126 monitors from the Nepal Army, Nepal Police, the Armed Police Force (APF) and the Maoist army will reach the satellite cantonments in two to three days," said Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, a Nepali Congress member on the Special Committee.
According to Bala Nanda Sharma, six monitors from the army, NP, APF and the Maoist army will be deployed at each satellite cantonment.
Though the Special Committee deployed new arms and army monitors at the seven main cantonments in mid-January after the withdrawal of UN monitors, it has not yet sent monitors to the satellite cantonments due to lack of an agreement among the parties in this regard.
The secretariat under the Special Committee had planned to recruit monitors for satellite cantonments much earlier, but the plan was put on the back burner after the Maoists opposed the idea of stationing monitors at satellite cantonments. The Maoists had maintained that such monitors were not required as integration would happen soon.
"We are not seeing the peace process move forward," Janardan Sharma, Maoist member on the Special Committee, told Republica when asked why the Maoists have now given their nod to the deployment of monitors.
In addition, the Special Committee also decided to supply needed human resources to its secretariat. The secretariat plans to recruit 215 staff to implement the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants.
The Special Committee also decided to establish a situation center at the secretariat in Kathmandu so that arms monitors from the cantonments can report back on their monitoring.
The secretariat had long planned to set up the center. But the Maoists had opposed the idea.
"There will be 16 personnel at the center -- four each from the army, police, Armed Police and the Maoist army -- to work round the clock," said Sharma.
Sharma added that the situation center will be in place in a couple of days.
There is no formal reporting mechanism between the Special Committee and the monitors as of today due to lack of a central reporting mechanism such as the situation center.
The prime minister, in his capacity as chairman of the Special Committee, had called a meeting on Monday to present a timetable for completing the peace process. But he could not hold the meeting because a meeting of top leaders that was supposed to take place before the Special Committee meeting did not convene.
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