KATHMANDU: Nepal today marked the conclusion of the six year old peace process by officially closing down the Special Committee on Army Integration and Rehabilitation.

Though the peace process had started on 2006, the Special Committee was formed in 2008 to oversee the army integration process.

The last meeting of the cross-party Special Committee decided to accept application of 47 Maoist combatants to quit the

Nepal Army

training.

It recommended the government to provide Rs 255,000 cash package to each of the combatants.

The number of Maoist combatants attending the Nepal Army training to join the Nepal Army has come down to 1,395, sources at the Special Committee said.

Earlier, the Maoists had claimed that at least 9,000 of the 25,000 plus ex-combatants residing in the cantonments should be integrated into the Nepal Army.

The number, modality and rank of the Maoist combatants to be integrated into the Nepal Army was one of the toughest issues of the peace process.

The government has so far spent Rs 19.71 billion on the

Peoples Liberation Army

(PLA) cantonments in the last seven years.

In the meeting, the Maoist and non-Maoist representatives to the committee, were sharply divided on whether to investigate into the amount spent on the Maoist combatants, as irregularity was reported in the distribution of the money to the ex-combatants.

Nepali Congress leader and one of the members of the committee had claimed that millions of rupees were misappropriated while distributing money to the former combatants.