Opposition parties on Monday said they are not ready for a revision to the seven-point agreement signed last year to ease the PLA integration process in a manner the UCPN (Maoist) wants.

The statement comes a day after UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal warned the party could send all former PLA combatants opting for integration into voluntary retirement if other parties failed to show further flexibility.

Dahal had said the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML should demonstrate flexibility on age and educational qualification to ensure entry of the combatants aspiring to serve in the Nepal Army.

The Maoist plenum that concluded on Saturday decided to hold ‘final talks’ with opposition parties to seek a revision in the

seven-point deal to give additional concessions to the combatants.

“The Maoists gave their combatants false hopes of being given the rank of major and colonel,” said NC leader and Special Committee member Ram Sharan Mahat. “Now, they are deliberately trying to make the integration process a failure and take a huge sum of money from the state coffers.”

Mahat said there is no possibility of a revision in the standard norms defined by the Special Committee. “They should fulfill the norms of the Nepal Army in accordance with the Special Committee decision,” he said, adding that the Maoists are responsible for the current stalemate. Addressing a press meet on Sunday, Dahal had warned that the country could see violence if the

integration process was not executed in a ‘dignified manner.’

“We know the integration process will fail and the peace process will not conclude if we send everyone to retirement,” Dahal had said, adding that he will not let the process to be carried out like a recruitment. He had also told the plenum that he would try to ensure a rank of colonel, apart from concessions in age and education, during the ‘final talks’ with the NC and the UML.

UML representative in the Special Committee Secretariat Deepak Prakash Bhatta said the Maoist demand is an attempt to “eclipse” the integration process. “They are putting forth one precondition after another to create complexities and avoid the integrationprocess,” he said. “Integration is a voluntary decision, but it will be like using force if the party asks the ex-combatants to go for retirement.”

However, Jitendra Dev, who represents the ruling MJF (Loktantrik) in the Special Committee, said he supports a revision of the deal to integrate the remaining combatants in the Army.

“The number of combatants aspiring for integration has gone down significantly. If we allow everyone to go for retirement, the country could plunge into another conflict,” Dev said.

The seven-point deal had committed to integrate a maximum of 6,500 former fighters in the Army. The aspiring candidates number around 3,100 after the handover of cantonments to the government last April.

Of the remaining fighters, the Maoists have short listed around 2,700 to be sent in the Army.