Mr. Sanjiv Chopra, an IAS officer from Bengal cadre has taken over as the Managing Director of beleaguered cooperative NAFED.Mr Chopra was Director General of National Horticulture Board. He comes at a time nafed is passing thru bad phase of its existence.

His appointment is being seen as some kind of compromise formula worked out between Nafed Board and Ministry. It should be known to readers that the outgoing MD Mr. CV Anand Bose was removed by Board against the wishes of ministry.

Talking to Indiancooperative.com Mr Bose clarified that he has not been removed but has been promoted to the rank of Secretary. Nafed MD is a junior level post and I had requested the govt 10 days ago to find suitable post matching my rank. Coconut Board which I head is a secretary-level post, added Mr Bose. My promotion, Mr Sanjiv Chopra’s arrival and happenings at Nafed are all unconnected, said the outgoing MD.

There is, meanwhile also news of Nafed Chairman Dr Bijender Singh requesting ministry to be relieved of his nafed obligations. The Ministry, it said has asked him to put up the same before the Nafed Board.

A face-off between the government and nafed was not auguring well for the cooperative movement also. Hope the new MD streamlines the things at Nafed and makes it a classic example of cooperative movement in India. A goal which looks very distant for the Nafed  to achieve.

Delhi High Court division bench presided by Chief Justice supported government proposal to restructure Nafed. The court observed  that accountability and fight against corruption in Nafed should be pursued.

The Court upheld most of the decisions including filing of FIRs against 5 persons by the MD and his team.

The ruling in a way rebuked the Board decision to oust the Managing Director Mr. C Anand Bose against government wishes.

Talking to Indian Cooperative Mr Bose said that our line of action has been upheld by the honorable court too. I had gone there to restructure Nafed, make people accountable and weed out corruptions. Delhi High court has more or less dittoed our stand, added Mr. Bose.

Earlier, the Enquiry Committee has sent notices to 7 directors and has given them 8 weeks to reply. Some of the names of present and former Directors whom notices have been served are Mr. Bijender Singh, present Chairman, Mr. C V Holkar, present Director, Shri Niwas Gauda, former Director, Nagar Dalli, former Director, and Mr Makker former Director from Punjab. There are two former ministers from Karnataka in the list.

The business committee of Nafed entered into tie up business with many private parties leading to huge loss to Nafed. Top officials with their “notorious tie-ups” with some private businesses allegedly made Nafed extend counter guarantees on loans taken by them without any security, with the connivance of a few board members. It is also reliably learnt that Delhi police has arrested the former additional managing director Homi Rajvanshi — and a Delhi-based businessman identified as O.P. Aggarwal in this connection.

NCUI in its Board meeting on Monday elected two Vice Presidents namely G H Amin and K Shivadasan Nair. Both of them were elected unopposed. The finalization of names of two co-opted members was also on the agenda but probably consensus for the same did not emerge.

GH Amin is an old hand at NCUI as he was the President before Chandra Pal Yadav piped him for the post. His entry, though at number two position will bring some old flavour back in the NCUI.

Talking to Indian Cooperative.com Mr Amin said that his priority will be to bring about   amendment in the multi societies act wherein two terms restriction for the elected heads is mentioned. He said that this restriction is hampering the growth of cooperative movement in India. He said that along with the President he will also pitch for amendments in Cooperative act so that the elected heads are not dependent on the whims and fancy of state governments.

Mr. K Shivadasan Nair is Chairman of Agricultural Rural Bank Federation having its headquarters in Mumbai. Talking to Indian Coopertive.com Mr. Nair said that though govt does lend support to cooperative movement here and there, it is not enough. Being the Apex body, NCUI will try to get due recognition to cooperative movement. It will be recognition of farmers of the country, added Mr. Nair.

He further said that NCUI will also try to improve the condition of cooperative societies which in many cases are crying in want of modernization and latest know how. If we do not offer them the chance of upgrading themselves with time farmers will join some other group thereby weakening the movement, added Nair.

The other agenda on Board was clearance of audit and account report of NCUI. NCUI has 21 members in its governing council.

NCUI board meeting is taking place today. NCUI being the apex body of cooperatives has significant role in the development of cooperative movement but due to preoccupation of its President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav with many issues,cooperative movement pace is yet to pick up.

Mr Chandra Pal happens to Vice Chairman of Kribhco also. The grape vine says that Bagchi Bhia Patel,the Chairman of Kribhco has in the first Board meeting of Kribhco only delegated all powers to Chandra Pal. When Indian Cooperative.com contacted Bagch Bhai to know the truth, he denied this. But he in a way accepted it also by saying that Mr Chandra Pal is educated ,seasoned and experienced to shoulder the responsibilities.

Mr Chandra Pal is also active member of Samajvadi Party. With the elections closing on in Uttar Pradesh he is increasingly getting busy with Party work.Recently,according to sources he toured the districts of UP to bolster the morale of Party worker.With the departure of Amar Singh from SP,role of Chandra Pal is getting important in the Party.

Earlier,a delegation of NCUI led by Mr Yadav met the Central Registrar to seek clearance for renovating its guest house. Cash-strapped NCUI need to divert its education fund to achieve this. With practical absence of any seminar or training program after Chandra Pal took over,education fund remains largely un utilized.

Against these back drops it remains to be seen what justice Chandra Pal is able to do to the work of NCUI and cooperative movement.

NCCF chairman has a new job. Nationalist Congress Party  has set up a cooperative cell inside the  party and NCCF Chairman Mr Virender Singh has been put in charge of this cell . According to  Mr Singh  Union Agriculture Minister has decided to  focus on party activities more and more. It is obvious that IPL controversy has dented the image of Pawar in a big way and now he wants to bat from home turf which is cooperatives for him.

Virender Singh has earned a name for himself in Maharashtra cooperative horizon despite the fact that  he  belongs to Varanasi in UP. Though situation at NCCF  is far from normal, how much time Singh will be able to spare in realizing  Pawar’s  dreams  remains to be seen .

NCCF has recently got a new Managing Director. The MD Mr G C  Gupta is so busy cleaning up the mess that even after a dozen calls,  Indian cooperative.com could not elicit a positive response from him. NCCF board  will have its  election in August.

Head may begin to roll soon as government is girding up to nab the culprit in  Rs1200 crore scam  in Nafed. The Enquiry Committee has sent notices to 7 directors and has given them 8 weeks to reply. Some of the names of present and former Directors whom notices have been served are Mr Bijender Singh, present Chairman, Mr C V Holkar, present Director, Shri Niwas Gauda,former Director,Nagar Dalli,former Director,Mr Makker former Director  from Punjab.There are two former ministers from Karnataka in the list.

There are  29 officials of Nafed also in the list who have to file reply in 60 days.

When Indian Cooperative.com contacted the present Chairman Bijender Singh on receipt of notices he confessed that he and other directors have indeed recieved them.But he blamed it partly on the prejudices of first Enquiry Committee. To trace the route of vanished money the Registrar of cooperatives constituted a Committee which,according to Bijender was very expensive charging Rs 50000 for one sitting. He wrote to Registrar and Ministry of Agriculture against this, which in turn biased the Committee against him(Bijender Singh).

When asked why the second committee headed by retired Secretary also found him guilty on some charges,he said that charges are basically on Business Committee of Nafed  in which I was not a regular member. But it is true that being a local Director I used to participate in the meetings.

The business committee entered into tie up business with many private parties leading to huge loss to  Nafed. Top officials with their “notorious tie-ups” with some private businesses allegedly made Nafed extend counter guarantees on loans taken by them without any security, with the connivance of a few board members. It is also reliably learnt that Delhi police has arrested the former additional managing director Homi Rajvanshi — and a Delhi-based businessman identified as O.P. Aggarwal in this connection.

The first committee had found the entire board guilty of entering into non-agricultural business without the legel amendment in the Nafed bye-laws. But the Second Enquiry Committee has exonerated the Board.

When Indiancooperative contacted the former Managing Director Dr C V Anand Bose, he said that legal acton will complete its course. I was sent to Nafed to clean up the place and root out the corruption,I did my job and enjoyed my stay.There were many complaints and allegations and the Committee has found them to be true,added Dr Bose.Government has earlier also sent me to jobs of weeding out corruption.You can check out my track record, quipped a confident Bose.

Vasai Vikas Sahakari Bank adjudged 5th position in India

Honored as “Best Performing Co-operative Bank for Financial Year 2008-09” Vasai Vikas Sahakari Bank based in Vasai (w) is growing at the rate of 150 percent for last three years. Be it Indian Achievers award or any other- the bank’s track record of acquiring a business volume of Rs. 850 Crores in a short period of 25 years is commendable.

It caters to various small depositors and borrowers. With network of 7 branches Vasai sahakari Bank has won the confidence of its customers.

Bank also claims to be functioning with focus on co-operative values and has been active in economic development of financially backward society.

Presently Bank is headed by Chairman Mr. Jagdish Raut, Vice-Chairman Mr. Prabhakar D. Vartak and CEO Mr. Dilip Sant.

The financial parameters given below indeed indicate the financial position of the Bank

Bank’s Financial Results for the last 3 years

Rupees in Crores

Delhi State Cooperative bank is soon going to open 5 more branches as its turn over is showing signs of unprecedented growth for last 5 years. Set up in 1921 the bank could get license from RBI only last year. Earlier, the cooperative used to appoint Managing Director of Bank but now in order to introduce more professionalism in the working of the Bank, NABARD appoints the MD.

Present Managing Director Mr. R S Dahiya is quite upbeat on the success of bank after he joined as MD on in 2005. He claims that when he joined the bank the turn over was Rs 80 crores but has risen to 160 crores in a short period of 5 years. While the net profit gravitated towards 10% in 2005 it has almost trebled to 32% in 2009.Not a mean achievement indeed!

Mr. Dahiya has the ambition of converting Delhi State Cooperative Bank into core banking and he is also working seriously on the project. He is readying software by in-house sources for this purpose .A net saving of Rs 4 crores was achieved by involving in-house staff, claims Mr. Dahiya.

For any Bank to be successful it is essential that its loan recovery rate is high. Delhi State Coop Bank has a loan recovery rate of 87%.Bank is preparing for its next AGM which is scheduled in August and in which Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dixit may participate.

Baghchi Bhai Patel, the Chairman of Kribhco is fighting a not so respectable war with Iffco to remain delegate in the cooperative giant Iffco. The fight turned out nasty when Iffco officials went to Baghci Bhia village to return Iffco’s share of Rs 10 lakh. Bagchi bhai with his supporters not only refused to accept the shares but his supporters even resorted to violence. Media representatives were thrashed and their cameras were confiscated. It was handed back only after the deletion of clippings.

The Iffco-Kribhco spat has its genesis in history. Recently the GBM of Iffco authorized the Chairman to identify and return the shares of those who are on the list of Kribhco. According to Dr G N Saxena, Director Cooperative Development in Iffco, Kribhco delegate list has no public availability and we have requested the Registrar office to provide us one. Meanwhile, we found out on our list one Bagchi Bhai Boda, mind it not Patel in the Lakdir garh in Tankara block in Gujarat. We sent our area marketing manager to return his shares of 10 lakh rupees but what happened there is known to every one, added Mr. Saxena.Mr Bagchi bhai made a scene in the village and his supporters resorted to violence.

A person who is chairman of Kribhco with the name of Bagchi Bhai Patel becomes Bagchi Bhai Boda in the list of Iffco. Indeed there are surprises galore in the world of Indian cooperatives!

Reacting sharply Mr. V K Thummar, a cooperator and Member of Parliament from Gujarat told Indian cooperative.com that Bagchi Bhai has brought the prestige of Gujarat down by his acts. Gujarat has always been the leader of cooperative movement in the country and enjoys unparallel prestige but Bagchi bhai has not only made a mess of himself but that of Gujarat’s prestige also, lamented Mr. Thummar.

Mr. Thummar also wondered how can Bagchi Bhai, Chairman of Kribhco sit idle and delegate all powers to the vice chairman. There is definitely some “deal” on which they owe an explanation to the members of society, added the MP.

Many residents of Seelampur in Delhi have complained that rotten Amul milk in pouch is being distributed by the vendor. The milk looks yellow in colour and after boiling, turns to different colour resulting into bad taste.

The angry residents resorted to violence and later went to lodge complaint in the local police station. The report of defective amul milk has also poured from other areas such as Bakhtavarpur in Aliganj in Delhi.

Earlier, Amul has raised the price of milk in Delhi market by two rupees. Today being Sunday no person from Amul in its Delhi office was available  to answer the cause of defective milk in its pouches.