Give back our money: PLA guards to commanders

KIRAN PUN KATHMANDU, Dec 19: Accusing their commanders of embezzling the payments for food rations, PLA personnel deployed for the security of senior party leaders are currently knocking the doors of party leadership for justice.   There were altogether 106 PLA guards in the service of senior party leaders in the capital, and each of them is entitled to Rs 2,500 a month as food ration.   The total amount of money each of them is supposed to get since 2007 is Rs 150,000. In total, the commanders owe Rs 16 million to the PLA guards. The PLA guards have formed an 11-member committee to press for the return of the money. On Friday, they made an all-out effort to meet party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to talk on the issue, but they were denied access citing Dahal´s busy schedule. Similarly, PLA chief Nanda Kishor Pun also refused to meet them for “lack of time”. Spurned by both Dahal and Pun, they, met the party´s military in-charge and General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa. “We want immediate investigation into the irregularities and action against the guilty,” said Dhan Bahadur Bogati, coordinator of the struggle committee of the victimized PLA. Bogati is also the battalion vice-commander at the sixth division cantonment in Surkhet. The PLA guards were entitled to Rs 2,100 each as food ration after the second round of verification in 2007, but the amount was increased to Rs 2,500 when the Maoist-led government was formed after the CA polls. The committee members also submitted an 11-point demand, which, among others, included transparent financial system in the party, transfer of ownership of the party´s vehicles registered in the name of individual leaders to the party organization. At the standing committee meeting held in Sikute last year, the party had directed the commanders to return the money, but to no avail.   “We were hopeful and happy thinking that we would get our money. But the commanders told us they were not returning our money. Instead they challenged us to do whatever we could,” Bogati told Republica. He argued that the guards have not violated the party´s norms by forming the committee.  The committee has also demanded that the party make arrangements to take care of the injured, kin of those killed and disappeared during the insurgency, and ensure state honors to the PLA personnel.