Kathmandu. Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Pratibha Rawal held discussions with chartered accountants for reforms in the cooperative sector.

Minister Rawal held a meeting at the Ministry on Wednesday with the office-bearers of the cooperative regulatory body and ICAN to rectify the irregularities, non-transparency and lack of financial discipline in the cooperatives.

Stating that the role of Chartered Accountants was important to make the cooperative sector systematic, transparent and trustworthy, Minister Rawal urged them to play a role for reforms.

Minister Rawal urged the cooperatives to cooperate in the plan that is being discussed to resolve the problems of cooperatives. She also sought opinion on the modality of returning the savings as the ministry is going to start returning the money to the savers in the near future.

Chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Nil Bahadur Saru Magar and other members who participated in the discussion said that they were ready to provide necessary support to the Ministry to resolve the challenges seen in the cooperative sector.

Chairman of the National Cooperative Regulatory Authority Khaga Raj Sharma and Chairman of the Cooperative Management Committee Dilliraj Acharya were present in the meeting with Minister Rawal.

Similarly, members Ananda Raj Sharma Wagle, Umesh Raj Pandey, Aman Upreti, Hem Kumar Kafle, Hari Kumar Silwal, Sunil Devkota, Piyush Anand, Bharat Kumar Shrestha, Kalmani Lamsal, Pradeep Kumar Yadav, Executive Director Bimal Dangol, Director Kiran Kumar Khatri and Joint Director Asmita Dhakal were also present in the meeting.

The government has intensified discussions with various stakeholders in recent days, giving priority to reforms in the cooperative sector. Minister Rawal sees this initiative as an important step towards the reform of the cooperative sector.