By Narayan Prasad Mishra
We all know of the terrible situation in our country. The poor are becoming poorer, and the rich are becoming more prosperous. The unemployment rate is much higher than before. The price hike in foodstuffs and daily used goods – rice, grains, lentils, vegetables, clothes, and medicines are limitless. Poor people can hardly meet the expense of education and health. We hardly see a place without corruption, and the general people are exploited everywhere—the influential people with wealth, political and administrative power control even the police and the judiciary. The general public can seldom get justice. I know of a bitter experience of a man from Bhaktapur who is hiding and living in Kathmandu because of harassment from the police regarding his property under the influence of some political gang without any reason or legal ground. Instead of getting security, he is tortured by the police, feels helpless, and does not see where to complain to register his problem.
A picture of the protest by the Youth Group and other associations to give justice to Prem Prasad Acharya
There are innumerable problems the people are facing in the country. This could be minimized if we had good governance, giving people hope. Instead of good governance, we have bad governance and, more often, the absence of governance. Due to that, the general people are frustrated and are losing hope to resist the problem, which certainly pushes the weak people to take their own life. With all my experiences recently, I wrote an article titled “People’s Problems and the Government’s Absence,” published in “People’s Review,” the English weekly on January 18 before the sad demise of Prem Prasad Acharya.
I feel melancholy after hearing about the death of Prem Prasad Acharya by self-immolation by sprinkling petrol on his body and setting himself on fire in New Baneshwor in front of the Federal Parliament Building on Jan.25, 2023, Wednesday. According to the news report, he left a lengthy suicide note on the social media site Facebook mentioning the unlimited problems he had to face while studying, getting a job, doing business, going for foreign employment, and running an industry. He expressed disappointment with the country’s corrupt system and blamed it for his decision to commit suicide. The report also said that he left 25 points demands to the government. He depicted a very pathetic, shameful, and painful but accurate picture of the country. From his experience and writings, he seemed to be an honest, intelligent, diligent, innovative, creative entrepreneur and an unforgettable patriotic citizen of our land.
The problems he faced were not far from the reality we all general people have been facing in our everyday life due to corruption, bad governance, or the absence of governance in the country. The leaders of different political parties – the ex-chairman of Rashtriya Swatantra Party and ex-home minister Rabi Lamichhane; Nepali Congress leaders – Shekhar Koirala, Bishwa Prakash Sharma; Janamat Party’s chairman C. K. Raut; Kathmandu’s mayor Balen Shah, and many others showed their concern. The youth group and many other associations also protested for Acharya and against not giving justice to him at Maiti Ghar in Kathmandu on January 25, Wednesday. They lamented with forceful and beautiful words and sentences. That is nice and appreciable. However, we all know that just speaking does not serve anything. The government and all concerned people responsible for maintaining good governance in the country should study well the causes of it and do the work so that such a sad incident will never occur in the future.
In this context, I want to draw the attention of the government and other concerned offices and individuals to the severe unbearable problems created by the cooperative organization cheaters of the country. According to the news report, we are aware that dozens of cooperative organizations with different names have been torturing people throughout the country, not paying their deposited money and putting them in dying conditions. They opened cooperative organizations with the government’s laws, rules, and regulations and raised billions of rupees from people bringing out various attractive schemes. People deposited money in those places as they deposited it in the banks. No cooperative organizations, founders, or conductors were authorized to take money from these places without collateral against the rules and regulations. But most of these organizations in problem misused the money against the laws and rules as if that were their private treasury and stopped paying their principal and interest. They hid their property by transferring it to different people’s names, even artificially divorced the couple for this cause, and divided the property among family members. They acted as if they were licensed organizations to cheat the people, and our government stayed away from this scenery as if the government also agreed to it.
Among them, the most infamous is Civil Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization, run under Ichha Raj Tamang, the chairman of the Civil Group of Companies and ex-parliamentarian. I think the UML made him a parliamentarian based on his excellent record and reputation, not him as a cheater, just as we deposited money to his cooperative, trusting his name and fame. He raised about eight billion rupees from thousands of people. He invested the money in building Civi Mall, CTC Mall, Dharahara Luxury Apartment, and many other houses and housing, buying land and shares in different people’s names. Collating the same buildings, he got billions of rupees in bank loans but showed empty the Cooperative’s treasury.
He earned prestige and positions, presenting his money and power and influencing the high-power circles. He has his henchmen all-around – political parties, government, administration, police, and judiciary and does not fear though he is in custody. The country’s police force has not been able to arrest his daughters though there is a warrant for them. His heartless and corrupt lawyers, with a bribe of millions of rupees to justices, have been trying to free him from jail. That was in the published news. He said he was not responsible for paying the depositors money though he was the one who took all the deposited money without collateral against the rules.
According to the published news, he transferred the ownership of the Cooperative Office building to his other company’s name. He artificially divorced his wife, transferred the property to his wife and two daughters, and showed very little property in his name. It clearly showed he did all these deplorable tricks and conspiracies to be safe legally if the government confiscated his property in the legal battle in this regard. The case is clear that he and his gang cheated the people, and thousands of people have suffered unbearable pain and agonies. Dozens of people have died with the pain he gave, and hundreds are in the condition of life or death. Ichha Raj is pushing the people to go on self-immolation.
People deposited money to government-registered organizations. That is not their fault or mistake. That is not a topic of controversy about whether the depositors deposited the money to his organization. It is recorded in his documents, and we have his receipts and statements for the money we own. I think that is not the case which should be in court. In this simple case, we all are pushed to move around to different levels of offices and courts – Department of Cooperative, Bagamati Pradesh Sarkar, District Court, High Court, etc. with many worries, agony, humiliation, and torture. So far, our government is acting blind and mute regarding all these matters.
Does the government accept and agree that cooperative organizations mean the licensed organizations established to cheat people with conspiracies in whatever way they can? Why can they not make Ichha Raj pay the depositors immediately if it is not? Is it not the duty of a government not to let people cheat? Is it not the duty of a government to punish cheaters by any possible means? Is it not the work of a government to give justice to the sufferers? Is it not the duty of a government to amend the laws and rules if it prevents punishing the cheaters? Does the government want to see many more self-immolation? I think the responsible government should be able to find and confiscate the cheater’s property, even if they hid it under the ground or the ocean, not only the property transferred to the wife, daughters, relatives, or friends and pay the depositor’s money.
If the government and leaders really lament Acharya’s sad demise and wish not to have such a sad incident in the country, they should establish good governance without delay, punish the trouble giver and give justice to sufferers. In this context, the government can be exemplary in solving the problem of Civil Cooperative sufferers, the country’s most significant cheating case. For this, they should immediately study existing rules of Cooperative Organizations and find out the clauses under which they can misuse the deposited money and clauses that prevent punishing the culprits. Without delay, the government should amend or make rules to punish the culprits by confiscating their hidden property without lengthy procedures and give justice to the sufferers by paying their deposited money with interest. If they do so, in the future, no cheaters will dare to establish cooperative organizations with a sinister motive to grab people’s money with conspiracy in the country. It will also help to maintain this organization’s good image to the noble value of its origin.
narayanshanti70@gmail.com
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