(Updated with Nepali Congress´ comments & correct number of Maoist combatants in cantonments)
- PM to head Army Integration Special Committee
- Freed Kamaiya Commission announced
- Badis a sexual exploitation free community
- Maghe Sankranti a national festival of Magars
KATHMANDU, Jan 8: The cabinet decided late Wednesday night that Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal would head the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC), Ujyalo FM said.
Meeting for nearly two hours beginning 9 p.m. after the parliament meeting ended, the cabinet also decided to form a Freed Kamaiya Commission, declared Badis a sexual exploitation-free community and ruled that Maghe Sankranti would be celebrated as national festival of Magar community. The cabinet also endorsed PM Daha´s statement given in the House earlier. [break]
The eight-member AISC has two members each from three ruling parties – Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF) – and main opposition, Nepali Congress (NC). The powerful committee would look into the modalities of integration of Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army. The future of some 19,602 combatants in UN-monitored cantonments that has drawn a lot of heated debate would be decided by the committee.
The four parties agreed to expand the body after the NC strongly opposed the composition of the previously announced committee that had two from the Maoists and one each from the other three parties. At that time, the home minister was named head of the five-member committee.
The two top communist parties and the NC had agreed, on December 28, on the composition of the AISC but stopped short of deciding who should head the body.
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Reacting on the new development, Nepali Congress spokesperson Arjun Narsingh KC said: "It is against the spirit of what we stood for long. We have been calling for equal representation as the issue this committee is going to deal with requires consensus among the major parties. The Maoists have established their supremacy in a roundabout way again." NC has been insisting that a Maoist should not head such a committee.
Among other decisions, the cabinet formed a Freed Kamaiya Commission with Land Reforms minister as its chair. At present Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is handling the portfolio since his party and cabinet colleague Matrika Yadav resigned his ministerial post. The cabinet named at least two members in the commission – Pashupati Chaudhary, a Kamaiya rights activist from Kailali district and Ram Bachan Chaudhary, a freed Kamaiya from Dang. More members would be named soon, said a cabinet minister.
Bowing to the demands of the Badi community, the cabinet declared Badis a sexual exploitation-free community. Badi women had protested in the capital last year, demanding an end to their exploitation, saying their women and girls were forced into sex trade due to poor economic condition. They also demanded right to education and employment, among others.
The cabinet also decided that Maghe Sankranti that falls in mid-January as per Nepali calendar every year would be celebrated as national festival of the Magar community as well. Tharu community in western Nepal has been celebrating Maghe Sankranti as Maghi, their biggest festival.
Although the cabinet was supposed to announce the name of the governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank, it did not do so. It was not immediately known whether it had decided on the pick. A three-member committee had recommended Dipendra Bahadur Kchetri, Dr Sri Ram Poudel and Bir Bikram Rayamajhi as potential candidates for the vacant post of the governor of the central bank. Kchetri is ex-executive director of NRB, Dr Poudel a professor of economics at Tribhuvan University and Rayamajhi is an incumbent deputy governor of NRB.
