A brief account of visit to an informal gathering of cooperative leaders in Patna

“He is an avatar of Tapeshwar Babu and conducts the cooperative affairs of the state much like him”, said septuagenarian cooperative leader Rahguvansh Narayan Singh Chairman of Land Development Cooperative Bank.

Sitting in an informal dress and thronged by cooperative leaders from across the state at his residential office in Patna, Biscomaun Chairman Sunil Singh was busy solving their problems and was making faint attempt to keep the movement alive.

Cooperative movement in Bihar has fallen hostage in the hands of the government. The Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS), on which Nitish govt boasts no end, are acting like one of the agencies of the govt.

PACS are primarily used as a means of procurement and distribution of agri products with little proactive action from the local cooperative leaders thereby defeating the very spirit of cooperative which hinges primarily on peoples’ initiatives.

“Sunil Babu, our vigilance commissioner has grown so autocratic that he has begun to dictate terms to the Board”, said one of the leaders in the informal gathering. “Our Managing Director hardly bothers for the opinion of the elected board”, said another victim of govt high-handedness.

The sight of about 20 cooperators sitting informally and sharing their problems was indeed encouraging. When this correspondent asked them the purpose of their visit to this place , one of the leaders Gopal Giri, Chairman of Tapandu Urban Cooperative Bank said “ It’s a meeting point for us where we try to solve problems plaguing the cooperative movement.

Ramesh Chand Choubey, Chairman of Bihar State Cooperative Bank said “cooperators assemble here to deliberate on the progress of the cooperative movement in the state”. Ramkalevar Prasad Singh, Chairman State Consumer Cooperative Federation said “ Sunil Babu is seized with problems affecting cooperative from morning to evening and we come here to seek his guidance. Narendra Kumar Sharma from Jahanabad and Rambishun Singh Yadav echoed similar feelings.

Readers could recall that the State govt is not allowing the duly elected board of Biscomaun to operate. Indian Cooperative has gathered that there is a political pressure on Sunil Singh to switch sides to JDU. He is held as close to Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Keeping the movement alive in a hostile atmosphere is no mean job and the huddled crowds at the residential office of Biscomaun Chairman inspired hope that all is not over yet.

Raman

In what way can a co-operative be formed in Bihar?

I C Naik

By making an application for registration to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies. Watch the previous stories of this column to know the details as I have treated the same a number of times.

Bihar is a state which is witness to large scale hoarding, black-marketing and smuggling of fertilizers. The State Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has urged the center to ensure the availability of fertilizers in the state.

Nitish called the Union Minister of State for Chemicals and fertilizers informing him of an acute shortage of urea in particular in Bihar.

Sources say the shortage counts 1.96 lakh metric tonnes of urea this year. While Bihar needs 7.90 lakh metric tonnes altogether, it has so far been supplied with only 5.94 lakh metric tonnes.

Bihar chief minister is taking personal interest in the matter and has instructed his officials to ensure farmers experience no difficulty procuring the fertilizer.

Bihar police say nearly two hundred bags of fertilizer were being illegally taken to Nepal via SItamarhi district in the state. All the bags of urea have been seized and two persons have been detained in this connection.

The criminals were arrested as the police had been tipped off.

Sitamarhi district of north Bihar is close to the Nepalese border.

It is said Bihar never ceases to be copy for the media so far as smuggling of fertilizer to Nepal is concerned.

Cases of rampant corruption in fertilizer have been reported in the past with even charges leveled against fertilizer cooperatives which have been accused of being involved in the hanky-panky.

The IT giant Wipro has provided the state cooperative banks in 5 states of the country with the core banking solution in a bid to extend e-banking facilities to customers in the countryside. Wipro sources say the cooperative banks are located in Bihar, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab and Utter Pradesh.

As  desired by Nabard, the IT company will undertake computerisation of 76 state  and district  cooperative banks including nearly three thousand branches existing in several states across the country.

Provision of computer facilities will mark a revolutionary change in the functioning of the cooperative banks operating in rural areas.

Farmers will be able to receive e-payments towards subsidy, sending of money from cities to the countryside will become easy.

The cooerative banks will expand their business and activities and they will be on a par with the rest of the banks in terms of application of technology and banking methods.

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.

Exposure to cooperatives and introduction of new technology has catapulted an obscure Paliganj tucked away in Bihar to limelight.

The experiment had started in 2000 under ” mission mode program of technology mission 2020′ inspired by India’s former President APJ Abdul Kalam.

Paliganj farmers were sent on trips to Amalsad, Chikku fruit Cooperative and Warana Pura in Maharashtra so that they could understand the merits of the cooperative system.

Gautam Goswami who directed the whole experiment in Paliganj exuded happiness and enthusiasm while recently talking to the media about it. According to him, Paliganj earlier produced grains a mere two tonnes per hectare but thanks to the technology mission the farm productivity in the area has   surged to about 5 tonnes per hectare.

The Paliganj experiment is being supervised by technology information forecasting and assessment council of the Ministry of Science and Technology, government of India.  The place is within commuting distance of Patna.

Sources say   the new idea of farming being tried here has meant   more information and   exposure for farmers.  There is optimism that the Paliganj experiment would influence the future of farming in the whole of Bihar, they add.

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

Ex-Chairman of Biscomaun Sunil Singh bounced back as Chairman of Dumari Bujurg Primary Agriculture Credit Co-operative Society after winning a fierce legal battle against the State government of Bihar.

The Joint Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Saran at Chapra has held the election of the office bearers and the members of the managing committee of the Dumari Bujurg Primary Agriculture Credit Co-operative Society, Sonepur Block, District-Saran as also the election of the chairman of the said society as illegal and has set aside the same in April.

Mr Y V Giri, Counsel for the petitioners raised the issue of jurisdiction of Joint Registrar in the matter and sought interim relief from the Patna High court.

Basing his arguments on the Bihar State Election Authority Act, 2008, Giri said that Act provides that no election to a post of a body would be called in question except by way of an election petition and shall be filed before an authority under an Act regulating such body and in absence thereof before a Munsif in whose jurisdiction such institution or establishment or organization or body is situated.

High Court observed that in the light of Giri’s argument the order passed by the Joint Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Saran Division, is wholly without jurisdiction.

In the order the court said “Court on a writ petition filed by the members of the managing committee of the Dumari Bujurg Primary Agriculture Credit Agriculture Society questioning the very same order which is put to challenge in the present proceedings.

It is submitted that a bench of this Court while considering the statutory provisions and having regard to the circumstances governing the issue, by order dated 18.05.2012 passed in C.W.J.C. No. 9051 of 2012 (Annexure-12), while issuing notice to the private respondents has been pleased to stay the operation of the order”.

A cooperative official in Bihar has been caught red-handed accepting a bribe in his office in Lakhisarai. The vigilance detectives had swung into action on a complaint lodged by a local primary agriculture credit cooperative society.

The accused official had taken the bribe for giving permission for wheat procurement.

There are allegations that the official had earlier also taken some amount from the PACS chairman.

One of the problems bedeviling the grain procurement in Bihar has been the corruption rampant among the cooperative officials in the state.  The officialdom here has never been helpful and honest and there have been cases galore of their interference with normal smooth grain procurement.