Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has pledged to set up a high-level commission to resolve the issues of loan shark victims.

Talking to victims at the prime minister’s residence in Baluwatar on Saturday, Dahal said the government was working on the amendment of a law that provides a long-term solution to the predatory lending issues.

“There is no law that provides a long-term solution to the problem of predatory lending. It is the failure on the government’s end for not being able to provide justice and proper solutions to the victims. Drafting such a law was high on my priority list, and the work for introducing the law is in the final stage,” Dahal said.

Prime Minister Dahal further added that he had instructed the Home Ministry to address the situation.

Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, who assumed his office on Friday, had said the ministry is seriously concerned about resolving the problem.

“The Ministry of Home Affairs has also said it is prioritising the agenda of solving problems of predatory lending. The government is serious about the issue,” Dahal said.

On Tuesday, the government formed a four-member team headed by the joint secretary at the Home Ministry Rudra Devi Sharma to hold talks with the protesting victims.

Home Ministry undersecretary Dil Kumar Tamang, undersecretary at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Uma Kanta Adhikari, and undersecretary at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Jang Bahadur Dangi are members of the talks team.

Loan shark victims, who are from various districts of the Tarai, had arrived in the Capital on Sunday after travelling for 11 days on foot. The protestors returned to Kathmandu six months after signing a five-point agreement with the government in September last year after which they had ended their protest.

The victims also asked the government to provide them loans at lower interest rates, bring laws against unscrupulous lending and scrapping personal mortgaging contracts locally known as tamasuk.