The central cooperatives and poverty alleviation department of the ruling CPN-UML and the National Cooperative Federation of Nepal have presented suggestions to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, urging the government to revise certain provisions of the recently introduced ordinance related to cooperatives.

On Saturday, former minister Khagaraj Adhikari, head of the central cooperatives department of the party, and Om Devi Malla, chair of the National Cooperative Federation, submitted separate memorandums to Prime Minister Oli at his official residence in Baluwatar on Saturday, said the prime minister’s secretariat.

The suggestions focused on the need to amend certain provisions in the ordinance that seek to regulate the cooperative sector, with the aim of ‘ensuring its proper functioning and strengthening its role’ in the economy.

Among the key suggestions, the organisations have called for the revision of the provision that restricts individuals from serving for more than two terms in any position in the board of directors of a cooperative organisation. They have demanded that the two-term restriction should be only for the same position, that too only if someone holds the position consecutively. If their proposal is included in the amendment, an individual can serve for more than two terms in different capacities in a cooperative organisation.

According to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Oli assured that he would discuss the matters with other coalition partners and include them in the replacement bill if required.

The suggestions by the UML’s cooperative department and the federation, which is also dominantly represented by individuals affiliated to the UML, have come a day after the government presented the cooperative ordinance and other five ordinances in the federal parliament for approval.