Kathmandu. It is more difficult for the parties and leaders to win the elections than it is to fulfill the expectations of the people. To fulfill the aspirations of the people, you need a clear policy, a vision and a plan of action. What we need is a determination to execute.

The common people are troubled by the problems that have been going on for years. Whoever came to power in the past, whoever became a minister, all of them gave assurances and did not work, so the people could not get justice and relief from the government. One ministry that the people are waiting for but not getting is land management, cooperatives and poverty alleviation. Far from solving the problem, the ministers who headed this ministry were implicated in corruption scandals. They didn’t see people soaking in tears.

But now the situation has changed. The troubled Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation has got a young minister and his style of working has given us hope in the beginning.

RSP leader Pratibha Rawal is a minister. Rawal is in charge of two important ministries – federal affairs and general administration, land management, cooperatives and poverty alleviation. Both of these ministries are such ministries – there are a multitude of problems, a pile of discontent, and a mountain of challenges.

If you have a strong will, then problems and challenges become opportunities. Minister Pratibha Rawal has taken these problems and challenges as opportunities.

Pratibha has not had time since he entered Singha Durbar after taking oath as a minister on March 13. I didn’t have time before. It has been 4 years since she has been looking for ways to solve the problems in the ministries she is currently leading. So far, she has found many ways to solve the problem, is looking for some solutions and is also discussing with the stakeholders. She is continuing the work as per the previous research and consultation with the stakeholders. The work she is carrying forward has also made the stakeholders happy and has raised hope.

More than 14.5 million savers of the cooperative have been on strike for the last 4 years. Co-operatives have been forced to misuse their savings. Some have died during the agitation. Pratibha, who understands the problems of cooperatives and the plight of savers, sent a letter in the name of the National Campaign for Protection of Cooperative Savers on March 16 and called the representatives of the organization to the ministry on March 17 for discussions.

She held discussions with the agitating activists, ministry officials and officials of the concerned departments demanding the return of their savings. He clearly said, “I have not come to give assurance, I have come to solve the problem.

After the request of the minister, the officials of the campaign presented an 8-point suggestion. She had already figured out all the suggestions she got. Then she said, “Now the government will move forward responsibly, you can be assured.” The way Minister Rawal presented itself, there was hope among the aggrieved savers of the cooperatives. There was no assurance in the minister’s speech, there was an action plan. The minister was relieved. There were two other reasons why he was confident.

Letter of Letters

During the election, the RSP had made public a 100-point promise. The 31st point of which states that in order to protect the hard-earned money of the common man, we will return it to the savings accounts of small savers within 100 days of the formation of the government. In order to protect the income of savers, we will set up an integrated savings protection fund on behalf of the state, which will make arrangements to pay savers of distressed institutions on a priority basis, starting from small savers. Our aim is not only to jail the operators, but also to get the savers’ money back. Therefore, in line with the policy of ‘solve by listening, not closed’, if the directors or management of any cooperative, financial institution are ready to return the money to the savers and they have reliable resources and plan, then we will pave the legal way for ‘settlement’. In such a situation, we will give them the opportunity to mobilize their assets and recover their loans by setting a full guarantee and time limit for the return of the savings. ’

Governance reform agenda approved by the new government on March 27. Point 99 of the agenda states that the process of returning the savings of small savers of cooperatives should be started within 100 days.

The RSP had said that it would return the savings of small savers within 100 days when it asked for votes in the elections. The government put it on its agenda. After the discussion with the minister, one of the members of the campaign, Kushal KC, said, “After the minister’s words and the government’s decision, there is hope of returning the savings and the expectation that the fraudulent operators will be punished.”

Why did the return of the cooperative’s savings become so complicated and the victims were in more pain?

Minister Rawal is well aware of this issue. In the past, governments did not understand it as a problem and politicized it.

What is even more surprising is that Ravi Lamichhane is the only person involved in misappropriating the cooperative’s money and created the narrative that the problem will be solved in a pinch after he is booked and imprisoned. Ravi was charged, arrested, and detained. That too again and again. The problem didn’t subside, but it kept growing.

Because there was a political gimmick in filing the case against Ravi, the problem was with the operators of the cooperative. Still some people are saying, where can you spend the state’s money and give it to the savers?

Of course, the government may not have the capacity to return all the savings at once. More than three dozen problematic cooperatives across the country have embezzled Rs 3 trillion. But the government can find a solution if it wants. Not in papers and reports as in the past, but in practice, in policy and working style.

Minister Pratibha has already searched for many ways to return the savings. Runaway co-operative operators can be called back, where they have invested, and the amount of small to large savers can be returned from the same property one by one.

Blood and sweat were first mixed with blood and sweat in the money he had saved for food, so that he could get treatment when he was sick, to celebrate festivals, to educate his children. Can the state ignore it? Could it?