KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress (NC) lawmakers Sunday demanded the re-verification of the Maoist combatants as their real number was evidenced to be only about 7,000 instead of 19,000 by the recent public secret videotape of Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’.
During the meeting of the NC parliamentary party held at Singh Durbar, they criticised UNMIN for its inability to find the actual number of the combatants. All Constituent Assembly (CA) members who spoke at the meeting, according to Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat, said that President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav saved the nation from Maoists’ attempt to capture the state power. They dubbed the president’s step as appropriate and constitutional.
The lawmakers demanded to launch nationwide campaign in support of the President’s step. They flayed Unified CPN-Maoist for blocking the process of new government formation by obstructing the parliamentary process.
The lawmakers also demanded a probe into the unlawful expanses of billions of rupees from Finance Ministry for distributing money to the Maoist cadres. “The lawmakers demanded that the issue should be probed through public account committee of the legislature parliament,” said Dr. Mahat.
The lawmakers expressed serious concern over the Maoists’ strategy of buying weapons by using the state coffers for a fresh revolution to capture the state as explained by Prachanda in the videotape, said Dr. Mahat.
The meeting decided to form a high level mechanism to coordinate the party’s CA members representing different sub-committees of the CA.