Tekendra Deuba

Dipayal, March 20:

Over three dozen cooperatives registered with the Division Cooperative Office (DOC), Doti are non-operational at present. Personnel in these cooperatives say the situation has been created due to lack of proper training in such organisations, poor financial condition and absence of a chief in the DCO for the last six years. Rural people complain that no chief in the DCO has deprived cooperatives of direction and leadership. The DCO-Doti covers the districts of Achham, Bajhang, Bajura and Doti. The officiating chief of DCO Chakra Bahadur Singh informed currently 40 saving and loan cooperatives and multi-purpose cooperatives are registered at Achham district. The numbers are 12, 34 and 22 for the districts of Bajura, Doti and Bajhang, respectively. Among them, 11 Doti based cooperatives, 17 cooperatives in Achham, eight in Bajhang and five cooperatives in Bajura were not working at present. The acting DCO chief Singh said the cooperatives had landed in more trouble when the Nepal Salt Trading Corporation, Agriculture Development Bank and Agriculture Apparatus Corporation stopped providing support because of the conflict.

Gagan Singh Deuba, president of Malika Cooperative Multi-purpose Organisation of Gadsera, Doti said, “Neither we have sufficient capital nor we get any from other organisations. How can we function in this condition?” He added after the work was suspended, the organisation has become a burden for the managing committee. Rajendra Thakuri of Kapalle VDC said villagers had an easy time getting daily consumer goods when cooperatives were running on full swing. He added that the organisations were also ensuring smooth progress in development work. According to him, the cooperatives were able to distribute goods at fair price to people of remote areas because the government used to bear the transportation cost for the goods.