Locals protest Maoist vandalism

Civilians and students at Ramnagar (Mirchaiya), protesting the Maoists' destruction of a private school building, today disrupted traffic on the highway for three hours - from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.
They demanded that the Maoists apologise for their act, return looted goods and restrict their entrance in the educational sector.
Traffic resumed after the local administration, the Maoists and the school administration agreed to hold a trialogue on April 23, the Mirchaiya area police office (APO) said.
Local Maoist cadres destroyed the building of Chandra Jyoti School that was being constructed by Dhaniklal Shah and Kishor Khatiwada on 10 katthas of land at Mirchaiya-4 at 11 pm on Tuesday. The Maoists took the construction materials away on a tractor.
"The Maoists were threatening since the start of the construction of the school building," Dhaniklal Shah said, adding that they had been claiming that the land belonged to Shova Shahi of the royal family. Shah and Khatiwada claimed that they purchased the land from Birenda Shah of Kalyanpur for Rs 30 lakhs last year.
Meanwhile, Maoist district secretary Abinash said that the land belonged to a relative of the royal family. "Our cadres stopped construction of the building.
Their stance was that the building should not be built on that land at a time when the process of nationalising the property of royal family has been initiated," he added