"Those who want to take voluntary retirement are frustrated as the process of releasing them has been stalled following the takeover by the army," said Balananda Sharma, coordinator of the secretariat, "They are angry with their commanders for stalling the process and the situation can explode any time if the process is not resumed." [breaj]
Though the voluntary retirement process began on Tuesday, it was stalled after a couple of hours due to security reasons.
Sharma added that the conflict is growing between the commanders and the combatants who had decided to quit the military life and the combatants have stopped obeying their commanders.
"The combatants have started living in hotels outside the cantonments due to frustration and their deteriorating relations with the commanders," said Sharma, adding that he has already informed the Special Committee members and the secretariat about the situation and urged the members to take a decision on resuming the process soon.
According to Sharma, the delay has forced over 90 percent of the combatants to leave the satellite cantonments.
The combatants will not get ration allowance from Friday if another decision is not taken by the Special Committee. "They are not getting ration and other allowances from Friday," Sharma said, "It will further complicate matters."
The secretariat teams that have reached the seven main cantonments to release combatants opting for voluntary retirement are under pressure to resume the process, said Sharma. But the commanders are against resuming the process, saying their leadership has not directed them to let the process move forward. The teams are on the field since Saturday.
Special Committee member Bhim Rawal said the prime minister had told the Special Committee meeting on Wednesday that he would direct the secretariat to resume the process.
´But we came to know today (Thursday) that he did not direct the secretariat to resume the process," said Rawal, "We will talk to the prime minister on Friday in this regard."
Republica´s repeated efforts to contact Maoist representative on the Special Committee Barshaman Pun failed.
´Almost all integration issues resolved´
The taskforce formed to resolve contentious issues of integration has claimed to have settled "almost all" the issues.
"We have settled almost all the issues and we are meeting on Friday [to finalize the issues]," said Dr Minendra Rijal, a member of the taskforce and a Special Committee member.
However, Rijal declined to give details of the settled issues.
The Special Committee had formed the taskforce on Wednesday to resolve differences on rank determination, formation of the directorate under the Nepal Army, selection of combatants for integration, among other issues.
Another member of the taskforce, Bhim Rawal also said, "We are hopeful that all the issues will be resolved on Friday.”
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