Kathmandu, April 27: Senior leader of Nepali Congress Dr Shekhar Koirala and General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa have expressed their dissatisfaction over the decision of distributing funds from state coffers to unqualified ex-maoist combatants. Both the leaders have requested government to immediately correct the decision.
However, the government has already announced that it will distribute reparation money to ex-maoist combatants who were engaged in 10-year long Maoist armed insurgency. With the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the government and CPN (Maoist), nearly four thousands combatants were integrated into Nepal Army.
Today, both leaders Dr Koirala and Thapa have requested government to dwell on providing skill oriented training to these people. They said that the country’s economy have been moving towards difficult situation.
General Secretary Thapa shared a status on social media on Thursday in which he said, “The government’s decision to distribute large sums of money from the state treasury to unqualified maoist fighters is wrong and should be stopped at a time when there is extensive pressure on resources on state treasury.”
राज्यकोषमा स्रोतको व्यापक दबाब परेको यो समयमा राज्यकोषबाट ठुलो रकम अयोग्य लडाकुलाई बाँड्ने सरकारको निर्णय गलत छ,रोक्नुपर्छ।संक्रमणकालीन न्यायसम्बन्धी विधेयक विचारधिन रहेकोले सरकार रकम बाँड्न होइन पिडितमैत्री कानून बनाई संक्रमणकालीन न्यायको कामलाई शिघ्र टुङ्ग्याउन केन्द्रित होस्।
— Gagan Thapa (@thapagk) April 27, 2023
He has further said that since the transitional justice bill is under consideration in parliament, the government should focus on ending the work of transitional justice by making a victim-friendly law and not on distributing the funds.
Dr Koirala has also appealed the government to stop funneling state funds to ex-maoist combatants but to provide jobs.
Meanwhile, the Nepali Congress led Ministry of Finance has approved a guideline together with allocating nearly a fund of NRs. 1.40 billion for the distribution to these combatants. Nearly four thousands ex-combatants will receive Rs. 200,000 each this time. According to sources, the Ministry of Home Affairs has already collected their name.
