DEC 26, KATHMANDU. The Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation has brought a concept of forming the ‘poor cooperatives groups’ for the upliftment of the living standard of the poor.
Poor cooperatives groups will be formed by affiliating poor people in the cooperative institutions and the cooperatives will mobilize financial support provided by the government for the upliftment of living standard of the poor and underprivileged.
According to Secretary at the Ministry, Rana Bahadur Shrestha, the ministry has the target of raising the economic and social status of the poor people by affiliating 100,000 poor people to 2,000 cooperatives within the current fiscal year.
Shrestha said the ministry has prepared different income-generating programmes to uplift the living standard of the poor through the cooperatives.
According to the Ministry, poor cooperatives will be formed on the basis of the poor identity cards to be distributed by the government.
The Ministry has already submitted a new cooperatives policy to the Council of Ministers with a plan of raising the living standard of around 1.4 million poor families through the cooperatives within five years.
Some 4.7 million people are affiliated to 27,000 cooperatives in the country.

