December 21: A cooperative which was closed for three months without refunding the depositors’ money has started operation again. Manjushree Saving and Credit Cooperative Limited in Gokarneshwar Municipality-5 was closed from August 10. After its closure, the cooperative had issued a notice regarding the deadline for returning money to depositors. The chairman of the cooperative, Indra Lama said that the office of the cooperative will now be opened regularly and business will be done as usual. He said that there was a problem when the employee who was given the responsibility operate the cooperative did not take responsibility. The cooperative expressed its commitment that all depositors will get their principal back along with interest.

The depositors stated that they are also cooperating with the cooperative after it resumed operation.

The major concern of depositors is that they are unable to withdraw their money when needed despite having deposited millions of rupees in the cooperative.

Lama said that the cooperative was unable to return the money because the borrowers were yet to pay the loan. He said that the cooperative owes Rs 110 million to the depositors while it has given out loans of Rs 70 million. It has a building worth Rs 50 million and a total capital of Rs 130 million. Therefore, Lama assured that the cooperative will pay back the depositors anyhow.

Indra Lama has been the chairman of the cooperative since 2018. Before that, Samden Lama worked as the chairman. Samden was the chairman since the establishment of the cooperative in 2006. Vice Chairman Bijaya Tamang said that more than 90 percent of the nearly Rs 70 million loans disbursed by the cooperative are from the time Samden Lama was the chairman.

 “When I went to the house of many debtors to collect the loan, they used to say that they took the loan from Samden, and have already settled the matter with him. Meanwhile, Samden says he will come to the office soon and manage everything, but he does not come. Now, we will raise this issue at the general assembly,” said Tamang.

After the debt recovery of the cooperative halted, the directors started blaming each other.

Former secretary Amar Nath Ghimire who resigned from the cooperative, said, “Cooperatives should be operated with the cooperation of all the directors and share members. It seems that problems arise in many cooperatives when the members act like the chairman and the chairman runs cooperative like a personal company. It is not the principle of cooperatives to operate in this manner.”

Other  problematic cooperatives including Bauddha-based Sumo Savings and Credit Cooperative, Mukti Savings and Credit Cooperative of at Gokarneshwar-6, Swarna Lakshmi Savings and Credit Cooperative of Gokarneshwar-5 and Kageshwari Savings and Credit Cooperative of Kageshwari Manohara Municipality-8 are still closed.