Coordination among regulatory bodies stressed to solve problems of cooperatives

BYA STAFF REPORTER,Kathmandu, Sept. 5: Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Deputy Mayor Sunita Dangol has stressed the need for coordination among regulatory bodies to address the existing problems in the cooperatives. 

Speaking at the interaction programme ‘Identification and Solution to Savings and Credit Problems in Cooperatives’ organised by the Department of Cooperatives on Monday, Deputy Mayor Dangol said that it was essential to identify the problems and give solutions to those facing difficulties in the respective areas.

Basanta Adhikari, Chief Administrative Officer, said that the KMC would take immediate action regarding the regulation of the cooperative sector. He said that in the first phase, cooperatives would be asked to submit the report of financial audits, hold general assemblies and enable members to file complaints. 

Tola Raj Upadhyaya, deputy 

registrar of the Department of Cooperatives, said that cooperatives were in crisis because they gave loans to relatives, gave loans without sufficient collateral, invested more in consumption than production sectors and only sought profit. 

He informed that after problems arose in cooperatives, many cooperatives had sent letters to the Land Revenue Office requesting to freeze the assets. Some offices accepted the request while others did not, resulting crisis in cooperatives. 

According to the decision of the Nepal Government to hand over former Division Cooperative Offices to the local level, the jurisdictions of former Division Cooperative Offices were handed to KMC on July 17 2018. Before that, the KMC had already introduced the Cooperatives Act in 2017.

At present, there are a total of 1,953 cooperatives in the metropolis and 31,373 in the country.