The Haryana State Cooperative Sugar Mills produced 3.71 lakh quintals of sugar by crushing 54.89 lakh quintals of sugarcane up to December 28 this year during the current crushing season, against 1.94 lakh quintals of sugar from 27.24 lakh quintals of sugarcane during the same period last year.

The Shahbad Sugar Mill recorded the highest crushing of 11.43 lakh quintals of sugarcane followed by Gohana Sugar Mill at 6.19 lakh tonnes and Panipat mill at 6.01 lakh quintals, a spokesperson of the Cooperative Sugar Mills Federation said here today.

He said various schemes had been implemented for stepping up sugarcane production, boosting farm mechanisation and setting up co-generation power plants in the cooperative sugar mills.

In the Cooperative Sugar Mill at Shahbad and Rohtak, 24 MW and 16 MW power production plants, have been set up and these have already started generating electricity, he said.

Similarly, a proposal for setting up a 15 MW plant in Panipat Sugar Mill has been sent to the state government for approval.

A 16-MW power plant has been set up in the Cooperative Sugar Mill at Bhali Anandpur in Rohtak, at a cost of Rs 180 crore. The co-generation scheme would also be implemented in the Cooperative Sugar Mills at Karnal, Pawal and Panipat, he added.

PTI

The ICA expo on 8-10 December in Bangalore concluded with business transactions among cooperatives from 22 countries of the world.

In a mail sent by Luiz Branco, it is said that the Expo was a huge success. ‘We received several positive evaluation forms, Exhibitor made business and all should return on the next edition” she wrote.

Catarina Gaspar of  ICA wrote that ICA Expo coop 2010 has reached a total show space of 2216 square meters with 120 exhibitors from 22 countries and 4800 visits from all over the world.

In a letter to IFFCO Chairman Mr Surender Jakhar , Mr Petar Stefanov, President of Central Cooperative Union of Bulgaria thanked IFFCO for promotion of cooperative business model fit to be emulated by others.

United Nation has declared 2012 as the international year of cooperatives and ICA Expo coop 2012 is slated to be held at Manchester UK.

Justifying the hike in Amul Price GCMMF Chairman Parthi Bhai Bhatol said that Amul rate had to be hiked in view of severe

Parthi Bhai Bhatol,Chairman GCMMF

constraints being faced by the Federation.

Talking to India cooperative.com Mr Bhatol said that soon after Deepawali, the rain in Gujarat took a heavy toll on the farmers. This untimely rain rendered the livestock and feed kept for the maintenance of cattle useless.

The situation became so grim that many people started to sell their cattle and a situation threatening the existence of entire dairy cooperative loomed large, the Chairman added.

Also, the entire staff associated with GCMMF had not seen raise in salary for quite a long time. We had to tackle many such pressing calls and were constrained to hike the rate of Amul milk, added Mr Bhatol.

The decision was taken jointly by the Managing Directors of all the affiliated body in consultation with the Chairman of GCMMF.

Readers may be aware that Amul raised its milk price by Rs 2 per litre. This increase was effected in the brands called Amul Gold and Amul Shakti. Amul Taza will also see an increase of Rs one per litre.

The hiked rate will be applicable in Delhi, NCR and Gujarat from 30th of December while it would be implemented in Kolkata from 3rd January.

It is expected that being a brand leader, Amul’s hike in prices will prompt other dairies to raise the cost of milk. Coupled with soaring vegetable and onion prices, consumers indeed are going to have tough time ahead.

The State of Maharashtra has amended cooperative society’s act which will be effective from New Year. In this amendment, provision for constituting an Advisory Committee has been made in the existing act.

Lauding the move, Managing Director of apex housing cooperative federation Mr M L Khurana said that it’s a good step as we have always tried to keep our housing societies free of dispute.

This law will save lots of time as disputes otherwise drag for months together. Now an Advisory Committee will resolve the dispute on hand. Mr Khurana also felt that change in the model bylaws as done by Maharshtra should be followed by other states.

On a question what apex federation plans in view of this legislation, Mr Khurana said that we awaiting the details and once it comes we would write to all states to bring in suitable amendments in state model by-laws.

As readers may be aware that housing societies are notorious for being controlled by a group of management mafias who make their own by-laws and harass the member. Running to Registrar every now and then is not practical for members. Keeping these in mind Govt has come up with the concept of advisory committee which will help solve the day to day problem of members.

This Advisory Committee will have three members-one from the managing committee, one woman member and the third one will be flat owner. The committee will ponder over the complaint and will try to find solution.

Nafed and NCCF have joined Delhi government to bring relief to people reeling under skyrocketing prices of onions. The Delhi government has begun selling it at nearly 400 outlets, including those of Mother Dairy, across the city at Rs 40 per kg against the current retail price of Rs 60-70.

Camping in Delhi to help government effort, NCCF Chairman Virendra Singh said that govt is not alone in its fight as consumer cooperative is making every effort to help the consumer out from skyrocketing prices of onion.

The onions were being made available at 288 Mother Dairy outlets, 85 Kendriya Bhandar stores, five Nafed outlets and 13 National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India stores, Delhi development minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said. Consumers would be able to buy a maximum of two kg onions at a time.

Earlier, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting and gave the go ahead for sale of onions at reasonable rate in the select outlets.

In the meeting, Dikshit instructed officials to keep a tight vigil on the wholesale and retail markets and told them to continue raids against hoarders and black-marketers.

She also appealed to public not to panic as there was enough quantity of onions available in the market. “Both the Centre and Delhi government have taken a series of measures and the impact has been seen in the wholesale market. We hope the prices will come down very soon,” she said.

Dikshit said arrival of onions in Delhi has increased significantly last week and price of the commodity is set to go down in a few days.

Officials said availability of onions at Azadpur wholesale market had increased significantly following raids at 123 points in the market last week.

Amul raises its milk price by Rs 2 per litre. This increase was effected in the brands called Amul Gold and Amul Shakti. Amul Taza will also see an increase of Rs one per litre.

Talking to Indiancooperative.com R S Sodhi, the MD of GCMMF, the cooperative which markets Amul brand said that revision in cost was necessary as production cost has gone up. Our farmers are as much impacted by the inflation as those who live in towns, Sodhi added.

This increase in the price of  amul milk will be implemented in Delhi, NCR and Gujarat. In Mumbai Amul Gold’s price will increase by Rs 2 per litre while in Kolkata the increase of one rupee on Amul Taza and Amul slim cream has been mooted.

The hiked rate will be applicable in Delhi, NCR and Gujarat from 30th of December while it would be implemented in Kolkata from 3rd January.

Earlier, mother dairy the leading brand of milk in NCR has hiked the rate of its milk. But Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar is reported to have said that there would not be any increase in Sudha milk. Sudha is produced by Bihar dairy cooperative which has ushered in white flood revolution in the state.

The Kerala State Government on Monday  declared pay revision for employees in cooperative sector. Minister for Cooperation G. Sudhakaran said that the salary hike would be introduced with effect from April 11, 2007.

From last grade employees to Chief General Manger would get the benefit of salary hike. Last Grade employees would get Rs.1800 and Chief General Manager would get Rs.11, 000 hikes in their salary.

Sudhakaran said that the Government is considering a revision in interest rate for the investments in cooperative bank.

The proposal put forward by food Ministry to increase the price of sugar distributed through consumer fed is impractical. A compliant would be filed before Chief Secretary regarding the matter, Minister added.

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar favoured withdrawal of government control from the cooperative sector with a view to provide it more power in an opening economy.

“We want to withdraw government control from the cooperative sector and wish to give more control to the members of a separate general body. But I could not succeed in convincing my colleagues in Parliament to accord priority to this wish,” Pawar said.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the national launch programme of core banking solution for the urban cooperative banks (UCBs) in Ahmedabad.

“The Constitutional amendment bill to this affect has been pending in Parliament for last four years,” Pawar said adding, the idea is to let the general body decide the fate of the cooperatives rather than those sitting in the mantralaya (secretariat).

“On one hand we are trying to open up economy, and on the other hand, we are trying to gain control on the cooperative sector. This is not advisable.”

According to Pawar, with 6,800 branches, cooperative banks have 4 per cent share in the country’s financial sector. Since they (UCBs) touch the life of common man, they are an important segment in the economy.

He termed the multi-crore Madhupura Mercantile Cooperative Bank scam in Gujarat, which came to light a few years ago, as a “black spot” on the cooperative sector.

“It is the responsibility of RBI to protect the interest of depositors,” the Minister said.

Courtsey:PTI

Futures trading in sugar is set to resume Monday after the government’s ban for 19 months, with the Forward Markets Commission (FCC) regulator giving its formal nod to commodity exchanges.

The permission was given after a strong outlook for production during this sugar year, which started Oct 1, estimated at 25.5 million tonnes by the industry and 24.5 million tonnes by the government.

This was against estimated production of 19 million tonnes the previous year. India is the second largest producer of sugar and its largest consumer.

India had banned futures trading in sugar in May 1999 for six months due to a sharp fall in output and the resultant spike in prices. The government kept extending the order till September, when it allowed its directive to lapse.

The FCC lifted the ban Oct 1, but gave its formal nod for re-start of trading from Dec 27.

Yes, the commodity exchanges have been given permission to re-start sugar futures from Monday,” FCC chairman B.C. Khatua said here.

Permission has been given for six contracts from January to June.

Futures contracts allow speculators, actual users as also sellers to enter into advance agreements to but or sell commodities for deliveries at a later, pre-determined date.

Amidst doubts if the core banking solution will help speedy clearance of cheques in Urban Cooperative banks to whether the corruption in UCBs would be checked, the core banking solution for urban cooperative bank was launched in Ahmadabad.

While attending the national launch of Core Banking Solutions (CBS) drive of Urban Cooperative Bank’s national meet ‘Coop Core 2010′ in Ahmedabad, Pawar said that CBS will make the banks transparent. He also demanded that Reserve Bank of India should move forward to help UCBs organize better and be effective.

Participating in the mega launch, leaders stressed on the need of Urban Cooperative Banks for upliftment of poor as where nationalized banks fail to reach, it is the Urban Coop Banks which step in. For the large unorganized farm sector plus the urban poor, the UCBs offer glimmer of hope, they added.

The traditional way of carrying business is somehow not going with the mood of the times. Core Banking Solution offers to connect banks to the server so that a customer can operate his account from anywhere in the world.

In a major move which will at once make urban cooperative banks modern and high tech ,National Federation of Urban Co-operative Banks & Credit Societies Ltd (NAFCUB)  has bargained a reasonably cheap software for the these banks from the leading vendors.

In an exercise which was going on for quite some time NAFCUB  short listed 3-4 top software companies such as Tata Consultancy , Mindmill Software etc. It bargained hard with the companies and brought the rate at Rs 12,900 which is easily affordable by the UCBs. When they were dealing individually with software giants, the rate was quite high to the tune of approx Rs 35,000.

After shortlisting 3-4 soft ware companies, NAFCUB has asked the urban cooperative banks to choose any according to their preference. It has indeed fulfilled the role of true federation in the sense that it bargained well and protected the rights of UCBs.

“CBS for Urban Co-Operative Banks was launched during ‘COOP CORE- 2010’ (a two day exhibition cum seminar being held in Ahmedabad on 25th and 26th December) in which union minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar including many leaders participated.

“There are total 1,674 Urban Co-Operative Banks in with 7,000 branches and 6 crore account holders. Of the total Urban Co-Operative Banks, only 8-9 has implemented CBS so far despite the fact that CBS concept has been introduced years ago,” Patil said.

However some banks including leading Urban Cooperative Bank Saraswat Bank is not part of the exercise as it has already tied up with another software company and is selling the same to other UCBs who ever may be interested. But, according to sources its rate is quite high compared to latest deal struck by NAFCUB.