KATHMANDU, Feb 26: In the meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) on Sunday, the MPs of the opposition parties criticized the government alleging that it failed to play an important role in solving the problems of microfinance victims.
They also called upon the government to take decisive action in resolving the issues faced by victims of loan-sharking, cooperatives, and microfinance.
Despite the formation of a committee, which yielded no tangible results, around 3000 microfinance and financial victims from across the nation converged in Kathmandu on February 18 to demand government attention. Many parliamentarians echoed sentiments of governmental indifference towards resolving the microfinance crisis during the Zero Hour discussions on Sunday.
Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Member of Parliament (MP) Sumana Shrestha said that the government should make a long-term plan to address the demands of the loan shark victims. "Democracy as you say is needed for this class, you have to devise a comprehensive plan to address their grievances," she said to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
She also suggested establishing dedicated benches for loan shark victims in every district to ensure speedy justice for loan shark victims. She said that in the current lengthy process, the loan shark victims will not get justice. She also asked the government to investigate why common people take high interest loans.
UML MP Bidya Bhattarai also said that the government has not been serious in solving the problems of the suffering citizens. She said that the government is not serious about the fact that the savings of 16 of the 367 cooperatives in Pokhara metropolis are at risk.
Bina Lama, RPP MP, expressed disappointment over the government's failure to address the ongoing crisis despite previous parliamentary initiatives. She highlighted the continued suffering of loan shark victims, who marched to Kathmandu seeking resolution after a long journey. "Victims from cooperatives, microfinance and financial institutions have returned to the streets,” she said.
UML Member of Parliament Saraswati Subba said that it is sad that even though microfinance victims from all over the country have come to Kathmandu five times, the problem has not been resolved. She urged the government to engage in meaningful dialogue and take proactive measures to resolve their issues.
She said that the government would form a negotiation team to solve the problems of the microfinance victims, but the protest was withdrawn, but even after a month, the negotiation team did not give a solution.
UML MP Shanti Shrestha pointed out that the majority of the 33,373 cooperatives nationwide have failed to reimburse the funds collected from daily wage workers.
UML MP Saraj Ahmed Farooqui said that even though the loan shark and microfinance sufferers from Mechi to the Sudurpaschim come to Kathmandu after walking for months, the government has not been able to address their demands.
