Coop face challenges due to staff shortage

Kathmandu, Nov. 24: Local representatives of Province 3 have said that the shortage of staff at their offices had created constraints in regulation, monitoring and promotion of cooperatives.

Chairman of the Municipality Federation and Mayor of Dhulikhel Municipality of Kavrepalanchowk district Ashok Kumar Byanju said that the local representatives and employees needed a robust awareness about cooperatives, legal provisions and their functioning mechanism.

He expressed his views at the province-level meeting on ‘Role of provinces and local levels in promoting cooperatives’ organised by National Cooperatives Federation of Nepal (NCFN) in collaboration with the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoLMCP) and UNDP in Kathmandu.

 “There is a need to create a network of cooperatives at the local level and we need to create an environment where private sector businesses and cooperatives can move ahead hand in hand,” he said.

Chairman of Jugal Rural Municipality in Sindhupalchowk Hom Narayan Shrestha said that the Cooperatives Act 2017 was not as per the spirits of the constitution so it needed an immediate amendment.

According to him, the local governments are facing challenges in conducting day to day operations as the federal government has not sent skilled employees there. His office has received a document of cooperatives in Jugal Rural Municipality from the Division Cooperative Office but there was no one who can understand the issues well.

President of NCFN Keshav Badal said that the cooperatives had played a crucial role in developing and strengthening human resources and there was less poverty in the provinces and local bodies where cooperatives were active.

“Therefore, the federal government should inspire civil servants to join the local governments,” he said.

Vice-Chairman of the Planning Commission of the province Dr. Khimlal  Devkota said that the local bodies could create their own laws as per necessity but their journey to prosperity would begin with the appointment of the required workforce.

“The cooperatives should enter to the productive areas and an effective coordination between the local government and cooperatives in the respective local units is a must,” he said.

Secretary of the MoLMCP Gopi Nath Mainali presented a paper on ‘Cooperative friendly federal, provincial and local laws for the promotion of cooperatives sector’.

Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada had inaugurated the 2-day programme on Friday.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 26 November 2018.