BAJURA: A private company has fled Bajura district after collecting hundreds of thousands from the local farming community.

Karnali Agriculture Development Nepal Pvt Ltd has disappeared from the district after collecting a large sum of money from the local farmers.

It has been learnt that the company collected money through 13 social mobilisers saying they would provide attractive salaries at the local level.

The company collected a total of Rs 855,000 from a group of 1,710 farmers at the rate of Rs 500 each and then fled with the sum, said Pooja Khati, who worked as one of the social mobilisers.

Khati added that they did not receive any salary for their work. The company had agreed to provide a sum of Rs 17,500 per month to the social mobilisers.

"We did not receive any remuneration even after working for five months. We used to deposit the collected money at the office from where they would send it to their central office in Surkhet."

After the company ran away with the money, the farmers have together lodged a complaint against seven people at Bajura District Police Office, said Kamala Devi Karki, a farmer of Badimalika Municipality-4.

According to Bajura DPO, a case of fraud has been lodged against seven people including chair of the company Lalmani Devkota of Dailekh, Sandeep Shrestha, Ranbir BK, Rajendra Malla, Raj Kumar Bastola, Hem Bahadur Chand of Surkhet, and Mani Chandra Pandey of Kalikot.

The company did not even pay the complete house rent where it was established, said house-owner Hansha Thapa. He said, it only paid rent for three months and ran away without paying rent for the remaining six months.

Police informed that communication has been sent to district police offices in Dailekh, Surkhet and Kalikot to find them.

Meanwhile, Chief District Officer Chetraj Baral said, Karnali Agriculture Development Nepal Pvt Ltd had approached him for permission to work in the district but he had denied them the permit. He added that the company had later approached the District Coordination Committee for permission.

Chief at the District Coordination Committee, Narendra Kumar Rokaya, said the Committee gave the permit to the company for working in the district, however, they had no information as to what the company had been up to.

Karnali Agriculture Development Nepal Pvt Ltd has been registered under the Companies Act and has its address in Surkhet district.