April 4: The government on Monday formed a three-member high-level commission to resolve the issues of the usury victims.    
A meeting of the Council of Ministers constituted the commission led by former judge Gauri Bahadur Karki, informed Government Spokesperson and Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma.    
The other members of the commission include former Additional Inspector General of Nepal Police Uttam Raj Subedi and former Deputy Attorney General Ganesh Babu Aryal.    
The commission is given three months’ time and its central office will be in Janakpurdham of Madhesh Province. It has been given the terms of reference to submit a report to address the problems faced by the loan shark victims.    
Earlier, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had vowed to form the high-level commission to bring the loan sharking culprits to justice. To pile pressure on the government, the victims of usury had travelled to Kathmandu by foot from different districts of Tarai.    
Likewise, they held talks with the government team and presented nine points demands in the negotiation which were discussed in a clause-wise manner.    
During the discussion with the government talks team, the victims of loan sharking put forth demands such as the formation of a commission, resolution of the cases in the court and the cancellation of loan-paper made by the loan sharks.    
In an effort to respond to the demands of the victims of illegal money lending, the government has already decided to amend the Criminal Code to criminalize the act of usury. -- RSS