Cooperative victims resumed their protest by staging a demonstration in Kathmandu on Monday.

The cooperative victims returned to the street accusing the government of not seriously working to implement the agreements signed with two ministers in the past.

In the demonstration held at Maitighar, which was organised by the National Campaign for the Protection of Cooperatives Depositors, the protesters raised their voice demanding immediate implementation of the past agreements reached between the government and the cooperatives struggle committee.

Federal lawmakers and the provincial ministers joined the protest to express their solidarity with the victims.

While participating in the agitation, Chairman of Rastriya Janamorcha and member of federal Parliament Chitra Bahadur KC said that state power had been misused to embezzle the depositors’ funds. He also claimed that the parliamentary special committee formed to probe the cooperative scam is unlikely to conduct impartial investigations, as the panel could come under the influence of state powers.

The parliamentary special committee formed to investigate crisis-ridden cooperatives nationwide started its work on June 18.

The committee, led by lawmaker Surya Bahadur Thapa of the ruling party CPN-UML, has two lawmakers (including Thapa) from the UML, two from the Nepali Congress, and one each from CPN (Maoist Centre), the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), and the Rastriya Prajantantra Party as members. The UML, the Maoist Centre and the RSP are ruling coalition partners with a majority in the committee.

The main opposition Nepali Congress obstructed parliamentary proceedings for almost three months demanding a parliamentary probe into the cooperatives fund scam. The party ended its House disruption after the government on May 28 agreed to set up a parliamentary probe.

KC further added, “A decisive movement is needed to recover the hard-earned money of the common people.”

Shailendra Man Bajracharya, minister for Cooperatives of Bagmati Province, also joined the protest.

Expressing solidarity with the movement, Bajracharya, a lawmaker of the Hamro Nepali Party, said victims of cooperatives scam should get justice.

As one after another cooperatives failed to return money to the depositors, people from across the country took to the streets demanding the return of their money. Those participating in the protests include street vendors, traders, government officials and pensioners.

People cheated by cooperatives have asked for recovery of their savings and immediate implementation of past agreements signed between the government and the victims of cooperatives, saying that the government has failed to honour its past pledges.

They demanded that those who embezzled funds from the cooperatives be arrested and prosecuted.

“As the government wasn’t serious about implementing past agreements, we resumed the protest to build pressure on the government,” Binda Raj Rai, the vice-chair of the National Campaign for the Protection of Cooperatives Depositors, told the Post.

The victims staged the first phase of their agitation on June 23, 2023, and reached a seven-point agreement with then Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives, and Poverty Alleviation Ranjita Shrestha.

They launched the second phase of protest as the agreements were not implemented. Then, they again reached an eight-point agreement on March 22, 2024, with the incumbent minister Balram Adhikari who heads the cooperative ministry.

“As the government remains reluctant to implement all those past agreements, we’ve launched the second round of the third phase of protests,” said Rai. “We are determined to make this round of protests count.”

However, spokesperson of the Land Management and Cooperatives, and Poverty Alleviation Ministry, Ganesh Prasad Bhatta, says the government has done a lot to address the issues. The government needs to amend some laws, a process which is already underway, he said.

“Some provisions of the Cooperatives Act and regulations need to be amended. Old provisions prevent the government from fully implementing the agreements reached with the cooperative victims,” Bhatta told the Post.

However, representatives of cooperatives victims aren’t convinced by his argument.

“Why didn’t the government take necessary steps to revise the law soon after the agreement with us following the first phase of the protest?” Rai questioned. “These are only excuses to escape responsibility.”

Meanwhile, Ram Narayan Shrestha, secretary of the National Campaign for the Protection of Cooperative Depositors, expressed disagreement with the government’s scheme introduced in the fiscal budget to address cooperatives victims’ problems.

In the budget, the government vowed to recover the money of cooperative victims with under half a million rupees in deposits. While unveiling the budget for the coming fiscal year, Finance Minister Barshaman Pun announced that the government would return upto Rs500,000 of depositors’ money by selling the crisis-ridden cooperatives’ assets. The minister said the government would amend some laws to make this happen.

But Shrestha, the secretary of the National Campaign for the Protection of Cooperatives Depositors, questioned the government's intent, saying the policy was to divide the cooperative victims and weaken the agitation.