Bara, November 20:

Reneging on their recent promise not to disrupt the DDC’s tax collection, Maoists have started wrangling with the Bara District Development Committee over the issue of collecting tax from scrap dealers.

The Maoists were already collecting taxes from scrap dealers in Simra, Jitpur, Gandak and Nautan in Bara and the district headquarters Kalaiya since September 2.

A dispute cropped up after the Maoists did not stop their tax collection drive even though they had assured of doing so by the end of Kartik, said a highly-placed source at the District Development Committee.

A Maoist district-level source said they will stop collecting the tax from November 26.

Irate Maoists also temporarily blocked traffic on the Birgunj-Kalaiya road after a dispute rose over the scrap tax collection.