CM Yadav sees need for high-powered commission to address usury victims’ issues

Chief Minister of Madhesh Province, Saroj Kumar Yadav, underscored formation of a high-powered commission to address the issues facing the victims of predatory lending.

Issuing a statement here today, CM Yadav asserted the federal government, Nepal Rastra Bank and provincial government need to coordinate efforts and form a high-powered commission to work against the exploiting unscrupulous lenders.

“People are demanding justice and justice must be served to them. The banks should open doors. Loan should be easily and conveniently dispersed to the general public,” reads the statement. “We welcome the effort of the federal government for declaring usury a crime and trying to bring the unscrupulous lenders to justice.”

The CM also called for an intensive homework and a concrete policy so as to save victims of loan sharks as well as to support them for their endeavors such as abroad studies, foreign employment thereby protecting them from exorbitant debt trap popularly known as meterbyaj in Nepali.

Similarly, he said that his government was serious towards the loan shark victims who travelled to Kathmandu on foot and those who could not travel. A group of loan shark victims from different districts recently reached Kathmandu on foot and have been organizing various protest programmes demanding justice.

“We feel concerned and responsible towards the every drop of tears shed by the victims of loan sharks who reached Kathmandu with agonizing pain. We are with you in every step,” assured the CM in the statement.

Furthermore, he dubbed the issue relating to loan shark victims not as an issue of a particular province but as a national issue. “I, on the behalf of Madhesh Province government, urge all intellectuals, planners and experts to jointly launch struggle against the usury.”