The government is going to make a legal arrangement to make it a crime to collect money at exorbitant interest rates (loan sharking).
A minister said that a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday decided to amend the laws including the Civil Code and make it a crime to collect money at extremely high interest rates or loan sharking.
A team from Madhesh districts has come to Kathmandu on foot to demand justice for losing their property due to a high interest on loan taken from a moneylenders in the villages.
Two days after they came to Kathmandu and started protesting at Maitighar, the government decided to declare loan sharking a crime.
A team led by the joint secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Kedarnath Sharma, met with the protesting loan shark victims today and discussed the issues of solving their problem.
In the meeting, Sharma assured the victims that the government is serious about solving the problem of loan sharking.
Joint Secretary Sharma promised to resolve the problems of the victims and requested them to call off the agitation.
“We reminded them that the government is sensitive and positive about this matter,” said the chief district officer of Kathmandu, Ghanshyam Upadhyaya, who participated in the meeting. He said that the victims wanted to meet and talk with the prime minister.
The loan shark victims came to Kathmandu after walking for 11 days from different districts of Terai. The government has formed a negotiation team under the leadership of Home Ministry’s Joint Secretary Rudra Devi Sharma to solve their problems. It is said that the government is going to decide to take the bill related to loan sharking to the parliament.
