Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli presented his government’s 100-day report on Wednesday. Presenting his achievements, Oli pledged to take action against co-operative frauds and return money to depositors.

As the Prime Minister claimed that the government was making progress in creating the environment for the return of savings to cooperative depositors, the National Campaign for the Protection of Cooperative Depositors announced the fourth phase of protest, accusing the authorities of failing to implement the agreements reached. with them in the past.

Citing the government’s non-commitment to implement its earlier promises made with the National Campaign for the Protection of Cooperative Depositors, campaign leaders held a press conference in Kathmandu on Thursday, where they announced that they would begin the fourth phase of protests on November 20 .

They said they would continue to wait for the government to implement the agreements by the deadline. Victims’ representatives claimed that the fourth phase of the protest would be a decisive one.

“Despite reaching an eight-point agreement a month and a half ago, the government has not cared to address the issue since then. Therefore, we have planned to resume our protest,” Kusluv KC, the campaign chairman, told the Post.

“The claim by Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (Balaram Adhikari) at a press conference on Wednesday that our concerns have been addressed has angered us.”

The government had reached an eight-point agreement with the victims of the cooperatives on September 9. It was the third agreement signed between the government and depositors who lost their savings within a year.

“Not only are co-operative frauds being prosecuted, but initiatives are also being taken to formulate a co-operative authority act and to establish a co-operative credit information center and a debt recovery tribunal, which are necessary for refunding depositors’ money” , said Prime Minister Oli, during the presentation. the government’s progress in its 100 days in office on Wednesday.

The victims of cooperatives repeated the third phase of their protests since June 24, accusing the government of not implementing agreements signed with two ministers in the past.

The victims organized the first phase of their agitation last June. They reached a seven-point agreement with Ranjita Shrestha, then minister for land management, cooperatives and poverty alleviation.

As the agreement was not implemented, they launched the second phase of agitation. On March 22 this year, they signed an eight-point agreement with Minister Adhikari.

The victims suspended their 108-day protest following the September 9 eight-point agreement as the government reiterated its promise to return their savings.

The eight points were agreed following a negotiation between representatives of the National Campaign for the Protection of Co-operative Depositors and government officials in the presence of Arjun Prasad Pokharel, secretary of the ministry.

According to the agreement, a committee was formed with the coordinator of the sub-registrar of the Cooperative Department. His mandate was to continuously assist in the collection and analysis of data to address issues including the return of depositors’ savings.

The committee is made up of representatives of the ministry and the national campaign.

Campaign president Kushluv KC said Singh KC, a victim of Gautam Shree Cooperative in Kuleshwar, has agreed to represent them in the committee.

“The committee agreed to monitor the inspection of distressed cooperatives, collect all the details and classify the cooperatives,” Kushluv KC told the Post. “The commission was supposed to present its findings and recommendations to the department after analyzing the data collected.”

But one-and-a-half months after the third phase agreement, the government agencies did not seem positive about holding the meeting as agreed to resolve the issue, KC charged.

The committee agreed to conduct a financial analysis of the inspected cooperatives, classify them as functional, crisis oriented and distressed and recommend necessary action.

It was also agreed that on the last Sunday of every month a review meeting would be held at the Ministry of Land Management to assess the committee’s progress. However, victims of the cooperatives say that no point of the agreement has been implemented.

Similarly, the agreement reaffirmed the government’s commitment to implement previous agreements reached with cooperative victims.

“Victims might have thought that executing the agreement meant immediate receipt of money, which was not the case,” said Tola Raj Upadhyaya, deputy registrar and information officer at the Department of Cooperatives. “But the government is working hard to implement the agreement.”

In a separate announcement, the government had announced that it would return money to small depositors in troubled cooperatives during the budget presentation. However, he broke this commitment.

During budget presentation for the fiscal year 2024-25, on May 28, the government announced a plan to repay the savings of these small depositors.

“To solve the problem in savings and credit cooperatives, arrangements will be made to return money to depositors up to Rs 500,000 using the property of the cooperative operators or their immediate relatives as collateral,” the then finance minister said, Barsha Man Pun. in his budget speech in Parliament.

The Post spoke to officials from the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation shortly after the budget presentation for clarification on how the repayment plan will move forward.

At the time, ministry officials had stated that the government policy, already approved by Parliament, would take effect from the start of the new fiscal year. However, five months into the new fiscal year, the government is still busy drafting guidelines to make the refund.

“Besides drafting the guidelines, we are also waiting for the actual data on the victims of the cooperatives; we are yet to receive the data from the provincial and local governments,” Upadhyaya told the Post. “Once the data is obtained, the victims’ money will be returned by selling the property of the people who misappropriated the co-op funds.”