Over a judicious use of Education Fund, National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) and the largest farmers’ cooperative IFFCO are once again at loggerheads. The Education Fund Committee that met sometime back diverted a sum of Rs 2 crore for the purpose of renovating the auditorium which hosts most of cooperative as well as non-cooperative functions.

IFFCO dissented and said that cooperative education fund, as the name shows, should be used for education and training and not for any other purpose, no matter how important.

Talking to Indiancooperative.com, Dr G N Saxena, Director of cooperative Development at Iffco animatedly argued that two proposals were before the Committee- one of starting the printing press lying in a shambles for some time and second, of renovating the auditorium.

While the first proposal was rejected outright, the second was discussed threadbare. I, being a member of the Committee objected to the idea of diverting a sum from Education Fund. Mr R K Tiwary, Central Registrar is also believed to have opposed the idea.

But Financial Advisor Mr Agnihotri, one of the two government nominees other than the Central Registrar is said to have supported the idea of diverting money to renovation.

Talking to the Indiancooperative.com Dr Dinesh, Chief Executive and DG of NCCT defended the decision of Committee and said that the auditorium is very much a part of education and training and given its bad condition, something needed to be done urgently. The air conditioners, chairs and other facilities cry for immediate attention, he added.

But Dr Saxena differed. “The auditorium is given on lease to a private party and it is using it for commercial purposes. How can the Education Fund which is being contributed by farmers in a way, be diverted for commercial gains of a third party”, he asked?

In the seven member Education Committee, NCUI has a majority and could get its agenda passed. The members from NCUI are President, DG of NCCT and head of Vaikunth Mehta, say insiders.

There are two members from Multi State Cooperative Societies and they are Iffco and Saraswat Bank. Due to medical problems, Saraswat Bank Chairman Eknath Thakur could not make it to the meeting.

There are two government nominees-the Central Registrar and the Financial Advisor. With the government nominees more often than not being absent, it is cakewalk for NCUI, said a source. However, both the govt nominees were present in the last meeting. These are quarterly meetings.

A cash-starved NCUI has more than Rs 330 crore lying in the Education Fund and the issue of diversion of fund keeps cropping once in a while.

National cooperative agriculture banks federation (Ncardbf)  has  come out in support of  FDI in the multi-brand retail sector arguing the move would  help farmers get better returns as well as enable them to pay bank loans.

As  the  foreign retailers  would   be in direct contact with farmers  getting  agricultural products from them , there would  be  more money coming  to farmers  and  the role of  the middlemen  would  stand automatically reduced,  said  Ncardbf MD Mr  Ravindran  while talking to the  press  in Chandigarh.

According to Ncardf , when  farmers get  better income  that means  their capacity to pay loans would rise.

Sources say state cooperative agriculture and rural development banks are active in 19 states altogether. The banks have put more than 15 thousand crore rupees in various forms and their NPA counts twenty percent, sources claim.

The meet in Chandigarh called upon the central govt to allow the banks to act as commercial banks. It also asserted that if the RBI permitted the banks to work as such it would go a long way in supplying the deficiency in banking services in the country.

NAFED’s Annual General Meeting at NUCI Auditorium in Delhi on Friday missed a stormy session by a whisker as delegates were prepared to voice their protest on the issue of share capital.

In a rarest of the rare cases delegates participating in the meeting forced the withdrawal of Agenda number-3.
Agenda number-3 was related to raising the share-capital price from Rs 40,000 to one lakh.

In an interview given to Indian Cooperative earlier, NAFED Chairman Bijender Singh had warned of disqualification in case of non-payment of the enhanced rate. Many of the delegates had also come, though reluctantly with a bank draft of Rs 60,000.

But the popular mood was against putting money in a sinking boat.

Indian Cooperative has learnt that there were backroom discussions between Nafed Chairman Bijender Singh and NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav in which the latter gave former an idea of restive mood of participants. Many of the directors also impressed upon the Nafed Chairman to understand the rebellious mood of delegates.

Some of the participants were prepared to raise their voice against the hike which might have led to an uncalled for situation. In a swift move the agenda was dropped before its turn came leading to wide applauds from the delegates.

Ram Kalebar Singh from Samastipur, Bihar who had raised the issue was quick to grab the mike and thanked the Chairman of staving off a storm.

Justifying their demand one of the delegates told Indian Cooperative that NAFED has not given us any dividend for a number of years. We have demanded to apply the new rate for new comers prospectively not retrospectively.

Speaking on the occasion Nafed Chairman Bijender Singh informed the delegates of steps taken by the Federation to recover the losses suffered by the agri-cooperative in tie-up business. The losses have accrued upto Rs 2000 crores, he informed.

Nafed has requested the government to give a bank guarantee of Rs 1200 crore to take care of the old loans and an amount of Rs 920 crores interest free loan for nine years, he added.

Bijender Singh also said that Nafed is taking all moves to recover the lost money with the help of investigating agencies including CBI. He promised to put Nafed back on the track with the help of governmental support.

Noida Soil Testing reports take ages to come and I request you to get it sent as quickly as possible, said Jaiveer Singh, a delegate from Hapur who had come to participate in the Kribhco AGM held on Thursday in N Delhi.

Krishna Lal from Bagpat wanted parity for cane growers vis a vis cooperative in matters of rate and availability of fertilizers. Khemchand Yadav from Jaipur wanted Kribhco to stress upon bio-fertilizer more and more.

In a free for all members’ AGM, delegates put across their point of views frankly. The Vice Chairman of Kribhco Chandra Pal Singh Yadav promised to accommodate as much as possible.

It was announced on this occasion that Kribhco has earned a pretax profit of Rs. 192.16 crores during the financial year 2011-12. Buoyed by the results, it declared a dividend @ 20% for Member Cooperative Shareholders, consecutively for the 8th year on this occasion.

The annual accounts have been approved by the Society in its 32nd Annual General Body Meeting held on Thursday at NCUI Auditorium in Delhi.

Kribhco Chairman V. R. Patel, Vice Chairman, Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, Managing Director B D Sinha and all the directors attended the AGM. More than 510 delegates of member cooperatives from different parts of the country also participated.

B.D.Sinha, Managing Director informed Hazira Plant has maintained good performance during the year. On marketing front, Kribhco has positioned itself strategically and is committed to fulfill the aspirations of all stakeholders, said Mr Sinha.

KRIBHCO has also diversified into Infrastructure business and established a subsidiary “KRIBHCO Infrastructure Ltd.,(KRIL)”. KRIL has established Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Hazira and Rewari. Further two more ICDs are under advanced stage of construction at Modinagar and Hindaun. KRIL has eight rakes and 1500 containers.

On this occasion, two eminent cooperators were honoured by KRIBHCO for their pioneering works. The “Sahakarita Shiromani” samman was awarded to Smt. Leeladevi R.Prasad from Karnataka and the “Sahakarita Vibhushan” samman was awarded to Shri Vitthalbhai H.Radadiya from Gujarat. Both eminent cooperators are said to have acted as catalyst for the national cooperative movement.

The 17^th Vaikunthbhai Mehta Lecture of National Cooperative Union of India, which was scheduled for Wednesday on 19^th September, has been postponed.

Talking to the Indian Cooperative NCUI Chief executive Dr Dinesh said that new date would be soon announced.

Renowned agriculture scientist and Rajya Sabha member M S Swaminathan had consented to be the  main speaker in this year’s Lecture .

NCUI press release said “Due to sudden illness of Chief Guest, the memorial lecture is postponed. The next date and time will be communicated to you shortly”.

People associated with NCUI were thrilled to have the famous scientist as the chief guest. Last year NCUI had succeeded in roping in NABARD Chairman Prakash Bakshi as the chief guest.

Fertiliser major IFFCO’s Paradip Unit in Odisha has been awarded the prestigious “Kalinga CSR Award — 2011” by the Renowned “Odisha state safety conclave“.

The unit has won the award for exemplary work undertaken in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility activities in Odisha, Iffco sources said on Sunday.

This award was received by S K Gandhi, Senior General Manager and Unit Head of the unit from Odisha Governor, M C Bhandare, at a function on September 14, they said.

After receiving this Prestigious Award, Sri SK Gandhi, Sr. General Manager of IFFCO, Paradeep Unit told that this Prestigious Award is the recognition to the dedicated team of IFFCO, Paradeep Unit.

He further stated that Paradeep Unit of IFFCO is committed for overall safety of the Plant and all its employees and IFFCO shall continue to make efforts to further improve CSR activities in and around Paradeep in the days to come.

-PTI

Vipul Chuadhary had hardly settled down after winning the coveted post of GCMMF’s Chairman when the news of the demise of Verghese Kuiren shook the nation in general and Amul in particular.

Chaudhary, meanwhile, had plunged headlong into steering Amul towards still greater heights. Indian Cooperative caught up with him and requested him to unveil his future plans.

excerpts:

Question: How did you feel about the departure of Amul’s father-figure Dr Verghese Kurien?

Vipul Chaudhary: Dr Kurien was our guide and friend and it is difficult to come to terms with his passing away.
I C: But he was not active in recent years?

Vipul: He was our Honorable Director till his death. We have become vulnerable in his absence as we had always grown under his shelter.

Question: What next? We hear you are eager to script yet another success story for Amul.

Vipul: We intend coming at the national level where we can act as a cooperative federation for whole of the country.

Question: But GCMMF is not even a multi-state cooperative society?

Vipul: That is an operational issue which can be solved. What is important is the idea of moving to the national level. With clarity of objective, we propose to have brain-storming sessions on the issue. We intend upgrading GCMMF as an umbrella cooperative in the dairy industry.

Question: How do you propose to go about this?

Vipul: We intend consulting with other Cooperative Federations. We can be a big support for the dairy farmers for the whole of India. GCMMF can market their surplus and the arrangement could be mutually beneficial.

Question: And the talk of DMS take-over?

Vipul: No no, its not a take-over, we have merely offered to operate it professionally. I have met the Honourable Agriculture Minister and now the ball is in the agriculture ministry’s court. I firmly believe, business should be done by businessmen not by the government.

Question: There is news about GCMMF venturing into organic food segment.

Vipul: No, not in the immediate future.

Addressing a meeting at a cooperative bank and a dairy managed exclusively by women in a village in Karimnagar district, Andhra Pradesh Governor Narasimhan underscored the importance of the expansion of the cooperative sector in the state.

The Governor said that cooperative sector has potential to create job opportunities and help fight absolute poverty.

The governor’s emphatic call for giving particular importance to the cooperative sector would influence the state govt’s attitude and policies towards the sector, a senior source at an important local cooperative body was quoted as saying.

A number of ministers and officials had accompanied the governor on the tour.

The Kangra Co-operative Bank launched RTGS services successfully from its own platform installed at its Service Branch at Pahar Ganj in New Delhi recently.

Kangra Bank is the largest urban co-operative Bank of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. It is said to be the first Co-operative Bank not only in NCTD Delhi but also in northern region of the country to have joined RTGS network run by the Reserve Bank of India.

This project was initiated in November 2011 with the active support from RBI, Mumbai and IDRBT, Hyderabad.

The Bank has its own website (www.kangrabank.com ) since November 2006.

It is also in the process of  having CBS systems across all its seven branches. Two of its branches have already adopted core banking solution.

The CEO Mr Attar Chand Parmar who had earlier been Chairman of this Bank for a long time said that these achievements for a non-scheduled cooperative Bank likr ours is not possible without the sincere efforts of the staff.

He also credited Shri Laxmi Dass,Chairman and Directors of the Bank for their vision and continuous guidance for the growth of the bank.

I want to know about the NCUI Projects. We want to complaint that we have not received salary for last 6 months. We are suffering and facing lots of problems.

We are working without salary for all these months. There are about 44 projects spread across the country. The staffs are suffering.

Please do something.

- Saurabh Deka, Assam