Government, cooperatives’ victims reach deal

The government on Thursday inked a seven-point agreement with an organization representing the depositors, who have been staging a protest as part of their long struggle to get their savings back from different cooperatives.

The deal that led to suspension of the ongoing protest came at a meeting between the victims of cooperatives, Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Ranjita Shrestha Chaudhary, Secretary Gokarnamani Duwadi, Registrar at the Cooperatives Department Namaraj Ghimire at Singhadurbar.  

“The meeting agreed to set up a savings and credit protection fund to ensure that the depositors get their money back,” said Prakash Joshi, spokesperson at the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation.

As part of the deal, the ministry has pledged to establish a credit information center and a credit recovery tribunal to speed up the deposit recovery process.

Per the deal, the ministry will coordinate with problematic cooperatives such as Oriental through their management committees to form a clear action plan and ensure its implementation for repayment of the depositors’ funds.

The two sides also agreed to protect the interests of depositors through the Cooperative Reform Suggestion Taskforce, formed by the Council of Ministers to give suggestions for reforms in the cooperative sector, by including a maximum of three representatives from among the victims, including those taking part in protest, as the taskforce’s invitee members.

“The minister has promised to meet our major demand—the repayment of our principal with interest,” said Harish Chandra Shrestha, coordinator of a federation representing the depositors defrauded by cooperatives.

Earlier in the day, the victims staged a demonstration at Bijulibazaar demanding that the government ensure the return of their savings with interest and pay them from the state coffers if the cooperatives fail to do so. Police stopped the demonstrators at Bijulibazaar Bridge while they were on their way to New Baneshwor for staging a protest outside the Parliament building.

The cooperatives had lured the depositors by promising high interest rates, only to deny them even the principal citing a liquidity crisis. The victims have been making rounds of government offices in their desperate bid to get their savings back through government intervention.

Earlier, an interim report of the Cooperative Problem Solving Suggestion Taskforce was handed over to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The interim report includes a 26-point suggestion on ways to handle problems plaguing the cooperatives across the country.

The report has suggested a number of measures including early establishment of a savings protection fund for the protection of depositors’ savings, a halt in the registration of new cooperatives and proper regulation of those currently operating.