The Maoists have refuted reports of collecting donations forcefully.

Organising a press meet in Chitwan on Monday, the Maoist District Organising Committee and the Joint Revolutionary People’s Council, Chitwan, claimed that they have not been forcing people to give donations for the past one-and-a-half years.

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

However, he conceded they had accepted voluntary donations for the mass gathering scheduled for June 15.

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.”

Earlier reports said that Maoist cadres have been intensifying a ‘donation collecting campaign’ in Chitwan district as per the party’s circular to collect 50 million rupees as ‘tax’ by July 15 in the district alone.