Special session not meant for toppling government: Prachanda

Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' has said that his party's call for a special session of the Parliament was not aimed to topple the coalition government through a no-trust motion.

Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” has said that his party’s call for a special session of the Parliament was not aimed to topple the coalition government through a no-trust motion.

“We are not calling the special session to dislodge the government,instead our party wanted the special session to discuss crucial issues such as corruption and writing the constitution on time,” Prachanda told pro-Maoist journalists in Nepalgunj after addressing the cadres of western Nepal yesterday.

Prachanda’s remarks came in the wake of the Maoists’ drive to collect the signatures of their lawmakers to demand the special Parliament session.

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The Maoists’ move has been seen as their strategy to dislodge the present government with a view to form a national consensus government led by them,which they have been targeting since May last year.

However,Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal yesterday told the ruling coalition parties that the Maoists were not cooperating with the government to conclude the peace process and to draft the constitution on time.

The Prime Minister said that the Maoists have not disclosed the exact number of combatants present in the cantonments,which is causing problem in the process of integration of the Maoist combatants.

The Maoist chief said that their attention was focused on drafting the constitution on time,not to dismantle the present dispensation. Talking to journalists,he claimed that it is possible to draft the constitution within two months time period if all work seriously.

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Regarding the management of the Maoist combatants Prachanda said,the combatants themselves should be asked whether they want to join the army,the police force or want to pursue further studies.

He dismissed reports that he had agreed to Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala’a proposal to integrate only 3,000 combatants in the national army.

When Koirala told me that that 3,000 combatants should be integrated,I told him that the number should be between 10,000 and 12,000,he pointed out. He also rejected the allegation that 50 per cent of the Maoist combatants have already left their cantonments.

The government has been providing pays and allowances to the Maoist combatants as per the figure provided by the Maoists but the number of combatants present in the United Nations monitored cantonments is less than the numbers claimed by the Maoists,the Prime Minister said,according to Nepali Congress general secretary Bimalendra Nidhi.

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He also complained that the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) is not cooperating with the government in providing the exact number of combatants in the cantonments and asked the Maoists to be transparent in these matters.