The list of troubled cooperatives is on rise. The high-level commission formed by the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation to probe the operations and possible irregularities said that 

they have sorted out 

complaints against 148 cooperatives until now.

According to the commission, it has so far processed 9,348 out of the 13,000 complaints. The Commission Chief Gauri Bahadur Karki said the number could increase further as they were yet to assess over 3,000 complaints. Karki said they found additional 77 cooperatives in the lists, up from 71 troubled cooperatives identified in the preliminary assessment. Based on the processed application, the total liabilities of 148 troubled cooperatives have crossed Rs 5.80 billion. 

The new cooperatives include Asal Savings and Credit, Aangan Savings and Credit, Indra Chok Savings and Credit, Exim Savings and Credit, Oracle Savings and Credit, Connection Savings and Credit, Prabhu Cooperative, Valley-top Multipurpose, Sindhu Yatayat Multipurpose and Saikchhik Samaj Cooperative among others. Although almost all the cooperatives are related with savings and credit and multipurpose, the commission also received complaints against Teko Agriculture Coopera-tive-one not related to the financial transaction. According to him, they were planning to complete the assessment of all the cooperatives by the next week.

The commission is presently questioning the operators of 31 cooperatives. Out of the 71 cooperatives of earlier, it has asked the Central Investigation Bureau to arrest the operators of the remaining cooperatives that have failed to be present as directed. Karki said they would be writing to the new cooperatives to show up with their balance sheets and plan to clear their debts. He said that 31 cooperatives had presented their plan to pay back their depositors. 

Earlier, the probe team led by Nepal Rastra Bank Deputy Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari idenfied only 34 cooperatives plunged in trouble. Following the growing number of complaints, the government formed the commission on Oct 31. 

Recently, the government has extended the tenure of the commission by three months. It has been mandated to make the troubled cooperatives pay back the depositors’ money and hand over the apartments in the housing projects undertaken by them to the concerned customers.