A local cooperative society election in Manteswar in Burdwan district of West Bengal has been marked by violence. The violence erupted when the counting of ballots was in progress.

Police say three police men are injured and twenty persons have been taken into custody in connection with the incident.

The mob had turned so violent that the police had to burst tear gas shells to control the situation.

The local Trinamool Congress and the CPM are blaming each other for the violence.

The Tribal  Cooperative  Marketing  Federation of  India’s announcement  of a cash award of Rs 10  lakh  for  Mary Kom a winner of  a bronze medal for the country in the London  Olympics has come hot on the heels of a similar  gesture by the fertilizer major IFFCO.

According to a press release issued by the ministry of tribal affairs, Union Minister of Tribal Affairs V. K Chandra Deo would honour the Olympics laurels winning player at a function to be held in the capital.

The function would be special as Mary symbolizes the determination and strength of Indian women. She has become a source of inspiration to them, noted MD of the TRIFED.

The release informs boxers’ coaches would also be honoured on the occasion.

The  Central  Minister of Tribal Affairs  Mr Kishore Chandra Deo  has announced that  a  commission  would soon come into existence to  decide the minimum support price( MSP) for the forest produce  being  used by  tribal  across the country.

The planning commission has already given the go ahead for the establishment of the commission. Mr  Deo was  talking to journalists  on the occasion of the silver jubilee  celebrations  of TRIFED.

The  minister  added the  tribal  cooperative  marketing development federation (TRIFED) would  be the  nodal agency  for the new commission and take the responsibility of putting various schemes into reality under it.

The commission will start working from the beginning of the year 2013.

The minister  also announced  that   minor  forest products (MFP) will  be so defined as to  comprehend   small  items such as  bamboo, tendu leaves and  other non-timber forest products  to enable  the tribals  to avail themselves  of multiple options for their livelihood.

Sources say the govt of India will make available the required financial resources and other things for the new commission.

The Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar opposed FDI in retail saying that food supply chain in a country of our size can be brought best by cooperative sectors.

He felt need of massive investment in expanding storage, warehousing and cold chain infrastructure in the public and cooperative sectors in India and improving their management.

Allowing FDI in retail cannot be a substitute for positive public intervention and desired level of public investment in this crucial area, the Chief Minister contended.

Nitish contested that the votaries of FDI in retail argue that the policy would transform rural economy and unlock supply chain inefficiencies in the agri-business.

But in reality the global retailers through their retail chains will set up backend “captive infrastructure” meant for their own business operations and not openly available for the farmers, consumers and public at large.

Earlier, GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi had also opposed FDI terming it anti-farmers.

Opinions are slowly building up in the country in favour of giving a try to cooperative model in a big way to solve farmers’ woes.

About 800 women belonging to a self-help group have been cheated of Rs. 2,750 each by four people including three women managing a fake health care center.

Police say they have already recovered Rs five lakh from them.

The accused had lured the members of the self-help group into paying them money as membership fee on the promise that they would get them each a loan of Rs one lakh.

Police have arrested all the four and further investigations are in progress.

Ranjan Singh says he is a chief reporter with Dainik Bhaskar in Bihar. He has shot a letter to Indian Cooperative from Samastipur exposing the highhandedness of cooperative officials in paddy procurement.

We produce below the letter

Dear Sir,

There is a village named Dhrubgama in the Kalyanpur block of Samastipur district. Farmers are being openly paid only Rs 1225 per thousand kg of wheat by the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies here, while the governmental rate is Rs 1260.

Farmers are also asked to bring their bag which PACS’s officials promise to return in course of time. The story is same in every villages of the district. There is no official who would bother to listen to you.

Corruption is rampant in cooperatives here. Every time one seeks loan from a cooperative bank, cut is demanded first.

I phoned cooperative official Ram Naresh Pandey but he dismissed the matter by demanding written complaint. When I asked the phone number of Registrar from him he had none.

I request you to goad higher officials of cooperative at the national level to help farmers get Rs 1260 per thousand kilogram of wheat. Government of Bihar is doing nothing.

Ranjan

Chief Reporter

Dainik Bhaskar

E mail-ranjan.blu@gmail.com

A PIL filed in the Gujarat High Court has challenged the constitutional validity of the central laws regulating co-operative societies, on the ground that it is a state subject.

An NGO, Consumer Protection and Analytic Committee(CPAC), in a PIL has sought annulment and quashing of amendment made in the Banking Regulation Act in the year 1966.

The division bench of acting chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala, after hearing advocate Vishwas Shah for the petitioner adjourned the matter for three weeks.

“The primary object of the aforesaid amendment was to bring Cooperative Banks within the discipline of RBI which was constituted by RBI Act, 1934. This has resulted in dual control pattern being created,” says the petition.

“Thus a co-operative society for incorporation, regulation and winding up of co-operative society is governed by State law and the regulation of banking business is by the Central government,” the petition said.

The petitioner has pointed out that from the legal point of view all co-operative banks are co-operative societies, but a co-operative society may or may not be a Co-operative Bank. “Unless it has intra-state functions, all co-operative societies are regulated only by State co-operative laws, while co-operative banks are regulated both by central banking laws and state co-operative societies acts as well.

This has resulted in dual control pattern being created for co-operative banks,” the petition has claimed.

Submitting that, the dual control has created several complications and problems for smooth functioning of co-operative societies, the PIL has demanded the HC to declare that the Union of India has no legislative competence to enact law for Co-operative societies registered under the State co-operative law- PTI

Mumbai based creative agency “Ask for Ideas” has launched a motivational song on the “Co-operative Movement “. It is a jingle song that conveys the values, attributes and philosophy of the Co-operative movement.

This “Co-operative Sector Anthem” shall be extremely relevant since 2012 has been recognized as the International Year of Co-operatives by United Nations.

The lyrics of this song are in Hindi, which shall be set to foot-tapping and melodious music. It is sung by professional jingle singers.

The hallmark of this proposed song is good poetry blended with dynamism – an irresistible combo that makes any song memorable. The creation of this jingle is a pioneering event by itself since no one in the country has so far attempted to communicate the message of the Co-operative movement through such a song in an emotionally powerful manner.

The composer of the song Anant S Krishnan is looking for organizations in the co-operative sector who can come on board as the Sponsors of this song.

Talking to Indian Cooperative Mr Krishnan said that the sponsor cooperative organization can upload it on social networking websites and may create a link on their website. They can also play it at events, exhibitions etc.

Indian Cooperative has received a mail from Rajiv Padia who also finds NABARD role vis a vis cooperative banks not constructive. Debate being soul of intellectual process we produce below his take on the subject. Excerpts

Hello Sir,

NABARD and RBI both are are responsible for this condition of CCI. They always put restrictive policies on State and District Central Cooperative Banks.

They never allow these banks to come out of artificially crafted well in frog-in the well manner.

While in the matter of financial discipline and economic prudence they are treated at par with Commercial Banks but when it comes to doing profitable business, they are reminded of their puniness.

In the given scenario CCIs can survive only if they are allowed to venture out and do business in other sectors and are not entrapped to agriculture or PACS alone.

RBI and NABARD still think that State and District Cooperative Banks are meant for PACS only.

We have visited USA and studied working of credit unions. It has been observed they survive even where big banks fail in USA.

RBI and NABARD must have some positive policies for State and District coop Banks.

Rajiv Padia

The last couple of months have been spectacular for Indian Cooperative. Its readership has doubled in these months. While nearly 10 lakh (one million) people visited the portal in the month of April, the figures for June are a whopping 19.72 lakh.

It means more than 80 thousand people visit the site daily now. Quite a statistic! Even for a general kind of news portal.

What has caused this quantum leap in readership? Our editorial team has been grappling with this question for quite sometime without getting a satisfactory answer.

It is true that Indian Cooperative was launched in a new avatar in the month of April- when the graph of readership picked up. New features such as Cooperative coffee shop- and Cooperative Queries were added. The additional features offered people scope for venting their views.

Cooperative Queries that is being produced with the help of Mr I C Naik, has become popular with more than a dozen queries landing up on our news desk every day. Mr Naik is a retired Chartered Accountant who does it out of sheer resolution to help the cooperative movement.

The special section offered on home page to celebrate the IYC-2012 has also registered a tremendous response. Our stories are being picked up and displayed at News Hub especially created by the International Cooperative Alliance for the occasion. It would not be a surprise if Indian Cooperative turned out to be the biggest contributor to the News Hub.

The portal is aimed at creating a platform for the cooperative sector and reviving the pristine spirit of cooperation that is in a bad way. Reviving this, calls for courage, conviction and of course material support.

We would not like to let go the opportunity to thank our sponsors who take pains to ensure the show called Indian Cooperative goes on. Iffco, Amul, Saraswat Bank and Cosmos Bank figure prominently in this list, more so because they have never been impatient with the editorial freedom of Indian Cooperative even when the issues at stake have closely dealt with them.

Most of all, the success of Indian Cooperative is a tribute to the cooperative movement, the foundation of which could be traced to the growth of human civilization. The International year of cooperatives has indeed been an encouragement to this endeavour.