Chitwan, June 12 :

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has claimed that the party has not taken any donation forcefully from the past one-and-a-half year.

Organising a press meet in Chitwan today, the Maoist’s District Organising Committee and the Joint Revolutionary People’s Council, Chitwan, made the claim.

Speaking at a press meet, Ghan Shyam Dahal, alias Abinas, secretary of Maoists’ Chitwan district unit, said the party has not collected any donation as has being published in the media.

However, conceding that they had accepted voluntary donation for the mass gathering scheduled for June 15, Dahal said: “The newspapers have to play a role to make people aware of things.” He urged people not to give cash as donations to unidentified persons.

Stating that the party used to collect tax to run the party, chief of the district People’s Council, Dandapani Poudel, said: “The tax collection was stopped after the beginning of peoples’ movement for the restoration of democracy.” He also said forceful collection of donation was stopped one-and-a-half years ago.

He also said that the people’s government has been running a model school in the district. Poudel said: “Tax was collected to run the school and to support the Maoist army.”