E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, DEC 23 -

The government’s decision to revive 3,000 vacancies scrapped in 2006 for recruiting youths from Madhesi and other minority groups remains ambiguous. Sources said a minute of the decision, which has drawn flak from the opposition parties, has not been finalised yet.

It’s been three days since the Cabinet took the decision, the Ministry of Defence and the Nepal Army have not received the official text of the policy paper that aims at making the Nepal Army more inclusive.

Minister for Information and Communications Jay Prakash Prasad Gupta is scheduled to make some amendments in the draft proposed by the Defence Ministry and finalise the policy paper on Friday.

Talking to reporters after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha had said the government had decided to revive 3,000 vacancies to recruit youths from Madhesi, Dalit, Janajati, Women and Muslim communities. Cabinet members affiliated to Madhes-based parties had informed that new posts would be filled by recruiting 2,000 Madhesi youths and 1,000 youths from other minority groups from the Tarai.

Confused by varying interpretations of the Cabinet decision, the Nepal Army on Wednesday had stressed that the recruitment process should be in line with the constitution and military law and that it cannot go for a recruitment drive only for a single community.

Under the existing law, the Army recruits 55 percent of the total seats through free competition and 45 percent under the reservation quota. 

The draft of the policy paper, according to the Defence Ministry source, had recommended the government carry out new intakes on the basis of the existing inclusive policy of the government. The paper also included statistics on inclusiveness in the NA and examined the reason for ‘under representation’ of youths from Madhesi community.

Madhes-based parties are learnt to have agreed the policy paper in principle and expressed the need of ‘some revision’ in its texts. “We are optimistic that we can finalise the text by tomorrow,” added the source.

The paper had recommended for opening 16 orientation centres in various parts of the country to disseminate information and conduct training for youths willing to join the Army. The Army, according to the policy paper, would open three orientation centres in the Himalayan, five in the Hill and eight in the Tarai regions.

Madhesi leaders have admitted in private that they don’t want all 3,000 posts for Madhesi youths but only a segment of it to prove that they fulfilled their commitment when they were in the government.

The proposal passed to Cabinet by Defence Ministry proposed setting up a new unit in the Nepal Army for Madhesis but was not specific on whether it should be a new battalion or a smaller unit. Such unit could be named as Janaki or Simraungadh, informed the source.  

Meanwhile, Chief of Army Staff Chhatra Man Singh Gurung called on President Ram Baran Yadav and discussed about integration of former Maoist combatants and recruitment of Madhesi youths in Nepal Army on Thursday. General Gurung is learnt to have told the President that he had no concrete information on the government’s official decision.

Posted on: 2011-12-23 08:49

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