A major breakthrough in the ongoing peace process, the much-awaited voluntary
retirement of Maoist combatants (People Liberation Army, PLA) began in
January 2012.
Rabin Bogati
January 2012
Nepal updates as of January 2012.
The Peace process
A major breakthrough in the ongoing peace process, the much-awaited voluntary
retirement of Maoist combatants (People Liberation Army, PLA) began in
January 2012. The prime minister-led Special Committee is all set to initiate the
process to bid farewell to those combatants who opted for voluntary retirement
during the regrouping process. The PM also directed The Chief of Nepal Army to
initiate the integration of Maoist Combatants in to Nepal Army. Among Maoist
combatants who are in cantonments 7,365 have volunteered to take retirement
and 9,000 have shown interests in
integration but all political parties have
agreed to integrate only 6,500 of them.
The Cabinet had released Rs 1.97
billion to the Peace Ministry to make the
first installation payment to the
combatants. The Secretariat has
decided to issue account payee
cheques to each of the combatants and
deposit amounts in their bank accounts.
Apart from the first installment of the 
cash package of Rs 500,000 to Rs 800,000, the Special Committee has decided
to provide cash allowances to the departing combatants. Combatants leaving for
their homes in the Tarai, Hills and Himalayan districts will get Rs 2,000, Rs 4,000
and Rs 8,000, respectively, as transportation allowances.
The grand farewell to these volunteer retiring combatants will be on 13 February
2012. Till then they will remain in the cantonments.
Federalism and state restructuring
The State Restructure Commission (RSC) which was commissioned in 21
November 2011 has submitted its reports to the Government. The SRC failed to
offer way out and did not deliver grounds for further consensus on federalism and
related issues.
The 9 member commission split into
two factions. The
Chairperson joined majority
group (n=6) and the minority
group (n=3) disagree with the
majority group.
The Constituent Assembly committee has earlier proposed 14-state model based
on ethnicity and language, which was endorsed by majority but not consensus.
The majority camp in SRC presented 11- state model, including a non-territorial
state for Dalits (so-called untouchables) based on language and ethnicity.
Similarly, the minority camp proposed 6-state model based on capability, each
state sharing boarder with China and India.
The two conflicting reports of the SRC, which many believe failed to offer a
solution to the key contentious issues of constitution writing, have spurred heated
debates among the parties, intelligentsia and the general public. However, the
report has recognized three important issues: i) 14 states is too many so it has to
be reduced between 6 and 10, ii) there is no need of preferential political rights at
provincial level, and iii) Dalit is a cross-cutting issue and need to look across all
states.
There are number of dissatisfaction and anger shown to the SRC report.
Constitution drafting rescheduled
There are number of differences among the political parties in state restructuring,
Government system and other issues. To accommodate these issues and
develop a common understanding and consensus, the Constituency Assembly
has rescheduled the constitution drafting action plan.
Supreme Court denies Government decisions.
The current Government id led by largest party in the Parliament the Maoist
party, but they do not have majority in the house. Alliance of regional parties
Madeshi Front has backed the Maoist Government. Since its formation in
September the Government has made number of unpopular and controversial
decisions. These decisions were challenged in the Supreme Court and in many
cases the Court has scarped many decisions and asked not to implement the
decisions.
One of the major issues is the extension of the tenure of the Constitution
assembly (CA), which has elected for a period of two years. Upon completion of
the initial 2 years and failing to develop the Constitution, the CA term was
extended for a year period and followed by two three months and a six months
extension. The Supreme Court (SC) has decided the six month extension as a
last extension. Failing to develop the constitution within the stipulated time of six
month, the SC asked to look for alternative such as reelection, referendum etc.
As a result, a tension between Legislation, Government and Supreme Court has
been arisen.
Multi stakeholder Donors
An agreement has been done between Donors and Government of Nepal for the
implementation of climate responsive community forestry programme. The
Government of Nepal has endorsed a policy for multi-stakeholder strategy and
programme. The strategy enables local community to manage the forest
resources by the users for household use and community development. The
Programme is supported by DfID, SDC and Finland and will be implemented by
national NGOs.
