Harendra Yadav, a farmer of Birganj-22 Jagarnathpur, who is preparing to bring in the rice planted in his three and a half bigha field, is now under stress. An unknown group set fire to his pile of rice, which had been cut and prepared for threshing, on December 6.

He said, "All that was left to do was to collect, and they destroyed about 210 quintals of rice by setting fire to it." The effort and investment made to grow rice was wasted. Yadav said that about 7.5 lakh rupees worth of rice was destroyed due to fire. Three weeks after the incident, the Parsa police have not been able to arrest the culprits.

It is Yadav's allegation that paddy was set on fire to seek political revenge. On January 6, an orientation program was held in his village under the chief hospitality of Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal President Upendra Yadav. Harendra provided his land for the program. According to him, Jaspa had separated from Nepal and threatened to not provide land. "My paddy field was set on fire at night because the land was provided for the party's program," he said. Jaspa Nepal has also held two protest marches in Birgunj, demanding investigation into the

incident and action against the culprits. Ishwarchand Yadav, city president of Jaspa, says that it is reprehensible to blame anyone without facts and evidence. "Harendra has been misled and accused," he said, "The police administration should investigate and punish the guilty."