DHANGADI, FEBRUARY 1

The cadres of Communist Party of Nepal led by Netra Bikram Chand today smeared soot on an assistant forest officer at Kailali's Pachmudiya Sub-division Office.

Assistant Forest Officer Bishworaj Pandit of the division forest office was smeared black soot on his face by CPN cadres who had approached him, saying they needed to have a word with him last evening. 'They identified themselves as CPN cadres and were saying that they had to say something to me, but abused me and left,' he said.

According to Pandit, he was abused for raising his voice against the donation drive that the party had launched in the region lately.

It is worth-noting that CPN cadres had collected donations from different community forests under the sub-division forest office some time ago.

In the face of the party's threat of physical action if it was not given the sought donation amount, community forests in the district had jointly decided to come across with the sought donation.

As per sources, up to 300,000 rupees was extorted from a single community forest.

Meanwhile, community forest officials had also informed that they were fed up with the donation drive they were facing during the monitoring of community forests by a team led by PA member and Finance Development and Natural Sources Committee President Harka Kunwar earlier.

While the abuse on the forest officer is said to be action of the CPN against him for telling the provincial committee and media about the party's donation drive, the party's Kailali district Secretary Dipendra Chalaune said he would first learn about the issue before saying anything.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 2, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.