KATHMANDU, Sept 4: Even after a decade, the victims of Oriental Cooperative, which is headed by Sudhir Basnet, have not received justice. Although a commission has prepared a report that about Rs 17 billion should be returned to the victims of the cooperative and housing, the victims remain frustrated as they have not received the promised funds.
Pradeep Kumar Gurung, who has been leading the movement on behalf of the victims of Oriental, said that billions of rupees of common people are at risk due to the government's mismanagement. "Four commissions were formed to give justice to the co-operative victims," Gurung said, "The victims have not received the money back yet." He said that if the state had sold Sudhir Basnet's land and distributed it, they would get some relief. "The commissions were formed, reports were prepared, but the victims are yet to receive their funds," Gurung said.
According to a report prepared in 2018 by the team led by Yuvraj Subedi, chairman of the 'Problematic Cooperative Management Committee', it is mentioned that Rs 16.75 billion should be collected from Basnet. The depositors of cooperatives, service users of apartments, banks and financial institutions have prepared a report to recover Rs 16.75 billion from Basnet, but the victims have not received their due amount.
After a decade, the committee formed by the government has prepared to distribute Rs 27.8 million to 523 individuals. Keshab Prasad Paudel, member secretary of the office of the Cooperative Management Committee, said that some amount has been distributed to those who have deposited less than Rs 100,000. "As millions of rupees of the common people have been at risk, we have started distributing some amount," Paudel said, "It is a challenge to sell Basnet's property as they are held by various banks and financial institutions."
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Although land is owned in different places in the name of Oriental Cooperative and its subordinate housing companies, there has been a delay in returning the victims through auctions. Member Secretary Poudel said that Oriental's land in Dang, Chitwan, Parsa, Kaski, Hetaunda is planned to be sold after proper evaluation. "There is property worth Rs 400/500 million in these districts," he said, "We are planning to sell it and distribute it among the victims." He said preparations are also underway for a field visit to 169 ropanis of land in Gundu, Lalitpur. Paudel said that although there is land in various places in the name of borrowers, cooperatives and housing, there are complexities in the sale and distribution process because banks and financial institutions have halted their transactions.
Basnet has to pay Rs 4.3 billion to Oriental's depositors, Rs 5 billion to banks, Rs 3 billion to apartment buyers, Rs 530 million to the government - a total of Rs 17 billion including interest. Oriental Cooperative had duped the common people by establishing branches in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Pokhara, Biratnagar, Syangja, etc. Basnet used other holding companies, including Oriental, to deceive the public.
Having collected millions of funds from the public under the guise of housing and apartment bookings through cooperatives, Basnet is currently indebted to multiple banks, including Prime, National Commerce, Kumari, NIC Asia, Nabil, Prabhu, Bank of Kathmandu, Siddhartha, Civil, Century, Nepal Credit and Commerce (NCC), and Nepal Investment. Some of these banks have since merged. According to the cooperative campaigners, the money should be returned to the victims by resolving the legal complications and selling the land. Min Raj Kandel, president of National Cooperative Federation of Nepal, says that the owner's property should be sold quickly and the victims should be given money.``Due to legal obstacles, the victims have been waiting for their deposit for far too long," Kandel said, "If there is a weakness in the law, it should be amended to facilitate pay back by selling the land."
After Basnet, the owner of Oriental, did not pay the amount, the Employees Provident Fund, one of the lenders, started the auction process of the land and building of Kohinoor Hills Housing which is under construction in Imadol, Lalitpur. The Fund issued a public notice last Thursday and started the auction process of 10 ropani 9 annas 2 paisa land and the buildings built on the same land in Kohinoor Hills. It is said that this auction commenced after Basnet did not pay about Rs 1 billion owed to the Fund. It seems that Basnet has an obligation to pay Rs 230 million taken for housing and about Rs 1 billion with its principal and interest. The Fund has issued a 35-day notice to recover the loan.
Even though four committees have been formed since 2013 to give justice to the victims of troubled cooperatives including Oriental, the victims have not received the funds yet. In 2013, an investigation commission was formed under the chairmanship of Gauri Bahadur Karki, the former chairperson of the special court, to investigate the troubled cooperatives that deal in savings and loans. Then in the year 2017, the government formed the 'Office of the Problematic Cooperative Management Committee (OPCMC)' and made Karki the chairman. Then Yuvraj Subedi, Kumar Raj Pokharel served as chairpersons. Currently, the cooperative management committee is operating under the chairmanship of Kashinath Dahal.
According to Section 105 of the Cooperative Act 2017, he worked to manage troubled cooperatives. Although over the past one decade, four commissions and various other committees have produced a number of reports, which seem to have been limited to mere paperwork, the victims of the cooperative have not got their deposits back. Currently, there are problems in hundreds of cooperatives. After Orental, Consumer Savings and Credit Co-Operative, Standard Savings and Credit Co-Operative, Pacific Savings and Investment Co-Operative, Prabhu Savings and Credit Co-Operative, Kohinoor Hill Savings and Credit Cooperative, Kuber Saving and Credit Co-Operative, Chartered Saving and Credit Co-operative, Vegas Saving and Credit Cooperative and Standard Multipurpose Co-operative were declared problematic in 2018, even the victims of these cooperatives have not received their money back. Even after that, dozens of cooperatives have been declared problematic. According to the Department of Cooperatives, there are problems in around 100 cooperatives. The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has also been investigating based on the complaints of victims of cooperatives in various districts.
It has been alleged that millions worth rupees of depositors have gone in loss because the government did not regulate the cooperatives. Many organizations are in trouble because the owners of the cooperatives give unsecured loans, invest in individual companies, and invest in real estate transactions. Due to the lack of effective regulation of the cooperatives, billions of rupees have been put at risk after the owners made their own investments. Nowadays, cooperative victims are knocking the doors of the Department of Cooperative requesting the return of their deposit amount. There are currently 30,879 cooperatives across the country, with a total of 73,37,252 share members, representing Rs 94.12 billion in savings and Rs 426 billion in loans.
