Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation is mulling a fully empowered high-level rehabilitation committee to recover public deposits from the troubled cooperatives.

The government is planning a new Cooperative Act to address the current anti-cooperatives practice, but the ministry has proposed amending the current act to enable it to set up such a recovery committee.

Citing the delay for the new Act, the ministry is planning to include a clause in the current act that could help penalise the frauds.

The amendment is in line with recommendation of the high-level commission led by former chairman of the Special Court Gauri Bahadur Karki, said an official at the ministry.

The ministry said it had asked Law Ministry to amend Cooperative Act 1992 inserting a clause that could help form a rehabilitation committee.

“The planned committee can speedily help return deposits,” said joint secretary at the ministry Suresh Pradhan. “The proposed committee will have at least two years tenure.”

The Karki probe panel, formed eight months ago, had received 12,962 complaints against 130 troubled cooperatives. They have been accused of misappropriating Rs 11.41 billion in deposits and interest of the public.

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