The President of NCUI Dr Chandra Pal Singh met Union Agriculture Minister to solicit his cooperation in seeking appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the inauguration of the Cooperative Congress.

The apex cooperative organization is holding the International Cooperative Congress later this year, Dr Chandra Pal told Indian Cooperative. “We wish to ensure Prime Minister’s presence as this happens to be the International year of cooperatives”, Chandra Pal noted.

Enlisting the support of Prime Minister would help the cooperative leaders focus on issues vexing cooperatives for a long time, said the President.

Income tax is one such issue which if not resolved in time would threaten the very existence of the cooperative movement in the country, he added.

Chandra Pal said that the other issue pertains to the cooperative banks. No new urban cooperative banks have come up as the government has put embargo on licencing of the UCBs. There are many credit societies and groups of individuals who want to float urban cooperative banks but the government is out of sync with times and consequently the movement is suffering, he added.

It may be mentioned here that the Malegam Committee constituted to formulate the licensing norms has already submitted its report but the government is yet to clear it. There is also the issue of a two layered control of the Urban Cooperative Banks being resisted by a section of the UCBs.

But more importantly, the frequent governmental interferences have compromised the cooperatives. People-centric movement might need governmental support in the beginning but frequent governmental diktats rob it of legitimacy and a leadership-crisis ensues, he asserted.

Through the cooperative congress we wish to draw the Prime Minister’s attention to such pressing cooperative issues, Chandra Pal remarked.