Govt extends Loan Shark Problem Solving Commission's tenure

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, July 12: The government has decided to extend the tenure of the Unfair Transaction (loan shark victims) Problem Solving Commission by three months.

A Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday took the decision. The term of the Commission is expiring on July 16.

After the Cabinet meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers today, Minister for Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma informed that the government extended the term of the commission by three months.

The government had formed the three-member Commission under the chairmanship of former judge of the Special Court Gauri Bahadur Karki with former AIG Uttam Raj Subedi and former Deputy Attorney General Ganesh Babu Aryal as its members on April 3 this year. According to Minister Sharma, the term was extended as the Commission needed to do many works in favour of the loan shark victims.

Government had also issued an ordinance to address the problems of loan-sharking but it could not get endorsed within 60 of its issuance from the parliament because of the obstruction of the parliament by the main opposition party CPN-UML for three consecutive days.

The Commission has already resolved 1,385 of the total 23,948   cases registered across the country through mutual agreements between the victims and the lenders.

The Commission has begun its work by establishing its head office in Janakpur since April 9.

 Among the districts, the highest number of complaints were registered in Bara at 3,322. The Commission's latest statistics showed that it settled the cases worth Rs. 765 million while resolving 1,385 cases. The landlords or loan givers had claimed Rs. 1.38 billion to be recovered from the 1,385 settled cases.

For hearing the complaints and receiving them from victims, the Commission has also set up two other wings -- Coordination/Facilitation Committee led by CDOs in each district, and a four-member Special Support Task Force led by Assistant CDO in each district.

The Cabinet meeting also fixed the support price of coarse paddy at Rs. 3,098 per quintal and Rs. 3,362 per quintal of medium paddy. This price is higher by Rs. 250 per quintal than the previous price.

Similarly, the Cabinet meeting promoted Joint Secretary Laxmi Kumari Basnet to the post of secretary as per the merit and seniority list.