BARDIA, NOV 30 - The UCPN (Maoist) activists looted about 20 quintals of paddy from a farmer at Patabhar  in Bardia on Saturday after the latter declined to make contribution to their donation drive.

Police said some Maoist activists took away the paddy harvest belonging to Dipa Rana because she refused to donate crop to the party.

Of late, the Maoist activists have been soliciting donation--both in cash and crop--from the farmers on the pretext of supporting the party's ongoing struggle and furthering the peace process.

According to police inspector Bharat Shrestha, they have received complaints about the Maoists' donation drive from 11 VDCs in the Rajapur Tappu region. Cases of Maoist intimidation to procure donation are also on the rise.

The Maoists have issued death threat to Naresh Bista of Pashupatinagar VDC-7 for not paying donation as they  demanded. "The Maoist activists, including Lahanu Tharu and Ram Kumar Dhital, have threatened to break my limbs as I failed to provide them 60 quintals of paddy as donation," he said.

Man Bahadur Tharu, Maoist district joint-secretary, admitted to soliciting donations from the farmers but he denied reports about issuing threats. "We've never forced anyone to make donation to our party," he claimed.

Similarly in Dang, the Maoist activists have seized more than 4,680 tonnes of paddy from farmers in the last two weeks. Most of the farmers, whose paddy was confiscated, were displaced by the Maoists during the insurgency.

Posted on: 2009-11-30 10:15

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