Special CBI judge in Delhi has sentenced 11 accused to differentiated jail terms in the famous Rs 4000 crore Pitampura Rangmahal cooperative group housing society scam.

Mr. Narayan Diwakar former registrar cooperative societies and the mastermind of the scam would have to spend a year behind bars.

The six other govt functionaries have also been sentenced to a year in jail each.

The CBI court has also imposed a fine of Rs. 2000 on all the seven govt. employees involved in the scam. All of them have been found guilty of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy under the IPC and offences covered under the PCA.

Additionally, the court has sentenced 4 city residents to three years in jail each.

Sources say the Rangmahal case stands out in that it is the first case to be decided by the court. The CBI had filed scores of charge sheets already in 2005 in the scam, sources add.

The convicts had forged and doctored documents and got a huge plot fraudulently allotted from the DDA for the Rangmahal CGHS.

Sandip Kulkarni, Vijay Deshpande

Pandharpur

Dear Sir,

I have some problem with Sakhari Patsanstha. It has now got converted into multistate credit society. Could you please send some information about how to registrar a multistate credit cooperative society?

I C Naik

The co-operative societies, with objects not confined to one state and serving the interests of members in more than one state for social and economic betterment of its members through self-help and mutual aid in accordance with the co-operative principles are considered Multi-State Co-operative Societies.

Inter alia following are necessary for registration.

1. Why is it absolutely necessary for the society to be registered under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002;
2. A scheme explaining how the proposed multi-State co-operative society has reasonable prospects of becoming a viable unit.
3. Four copies of the proposed bye-laws of the multi-State co-operative society.
4. Make application in FORM 1 prescribed under Rule 3(1) the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies New Delhi signed by at least fifty persons from each of the State.

The Kangra Co-operative Bank is the largest co-operative Bank of Delhi. It has reported net profit of Rs.12 crore for 2011-12, registering 66 % growth over previous fiscal.

The Bank has not only been able to retain its existing customers but has also added new customers. It has registered a net growth of more than 4.75% in its customer base.

Talking to Indian Cooperative, Attar Chand Parmar, MD  of the Bank said that during last year there had been a great demand of loans from the customers but the Bank had to turn down plenty of requests to maintain  the mandatory CD ratio of 70%.

In order to meet the loan requirements of the customers while also maintaining the maximum allowed CD ratio of 70%, special efforts are being made to mobilize more deposits. The Bank has increased borrowing rates very recently and made them very competitive.

The Bank has successfully been able to increase its deposits and loans by 16.75 % and 18.34 % respectively during the previous financial year 2011-12.

The Bank has also been able to reduce down both gross and net NPA; which has come down to 5.07% and 0% from 6.20 % and 0.32% respectively.

The CRAR of the bank has also been remained above 15% by showing marginal increase of 0.42% over previous year.

He further said that the Board of the Bank has taken a conscious decision to increase the saving bank interest rate to 5 % for amount up to  Rs.1 lac  and  6% for  amount above one lac which will help the Bank to increase CASA deposits .

The Bank has been paying 18 % dividend continuously for the last three years and the management is likely to propose 18% dividend this year too in the ensuing AGBM for its approval which has been scheduled for September 2.

The Bank is introducing RTGS and NEFT facilities at its own within next two months.

MD further added that continues and steady growth of the Bank has been due to the sincere efforts being done by the staff. The strategic planning and useful guidance of the Board of Directors which is among others represented by Shri B R Sharma, professional Director and Ex-MD of the Bank have helped the bank.

Mr Sharma has been associated with the Kangra Bank for more than five decades and  has been instrumental in bringing the Bank to its present status from a small T&C society of yester years. Above all, the able guidance of Chairman Shri Laxmi Dass with rich experience in varied fields of life has brought us to glorious heights, Mr Parmar added.

GCMMF popularly known as Amul has made a name for itself as a company that sells dairy products. Amul girl has no doubt played an important role in branding its image. But Indian Cooperative has found out another reason behind its great reputation.

The incident is small yet significant. It shows how an organization gets built.

One of the readers based in Delhi wrote in the comment box of one of the stories of Indian Cooperative that the milk being supplied by Amul for the last three days had been stale.

Indian Cooperative forwarded the comment to R S Sodhi , Managing Director of Amul Monday evening. Mr Sodhi wrote back immediately asking for e-mail and other details of the complainant which Indian Cooperative supplied happily.

And then a torrent of communications started from the MD’s desk for the entire day. Next morning the comment-writer Sanjay JIndal ,a resident of Patparganj in Delhi was startled to find a whole team of Amul officials descending on his residence.

Taken aback by the fast-paced development he writes “

With reference to my complaint about Amul milk, I had posted on your portal, I wasn’t expecting any response at all, but I am very happy to inform you that they took notice and made an effort to understand and resolve the issue.

Amul’s representative visited me today and replaced the bad milk. He also assured me that they will also deal with the distributor who had refused to change the delivery and refused to replace the bad milk. But something to follow up if anything happens or not!

I also asked him if the entire customer who got the spoiled milk for few days, would they get the refund and he said yes, that they are going to process refunds thru the dealer network. Again something to watch if Amul would really do anything on this or these is just empty assurances.

Thanks again for your initiative. This gives encouragement to consumers who sometime think that there is no point in complaining because nothing will happen.

Regards
Sanjay Jindal sanjay.jindal@netsutra.com

Sodhi acting with alacrity and dispatch is something that could not only be useful for the cooperatives but also for our corporates. It is because of this kind of attitude that Amul takes on the India Inc and is a jewel of the Cooperative world. Will other MDs take cue from him?

“We have to put our best foot forward” was the theme of speech NCUI President Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav made on the eve of NCUI’s AGM that took place in NCUI auditorium in N Delhi on Thursday.

The AGM was held in a critical time when the world is celebrating International Year of Cooperative on one hand, NCUI is bleeding from within on the other. The problem of shortage of fund has escalated to alarming level for the apex organization.

Speaking on the occasion Mr Yadav impressed on the need to make most of the opportunities thrown by the IYC 2012. Lauding Indian cooperative movement as the biggest in the world he said that effort to reach out to the last man is being made this year.

Films, exhibitions, seminars and various other means of publicity are being organized to celebrate International Year of Cooperative, he said. He also applauded the constitutional amendment which raised the act of forming cooperatives to the status of Fundamental Rights.

The AGM was attended by delegates who had come from various parts of the country as well as members of governing council. However, the number of participants failed to fill up the auditorium. Communication gap was cited as the reason behind shortfall in number.

General Body also made a renewed appeal to government for release of fund as its various field projects are languishing with staffs facing untold miseries. The usual business of passing the accounts of past and next year was completed in the AGM.

A CBI court in Delhi has put on trial Narayan Diwakar the mastermind of the several thousand crore cooperative group housing society scam and some others on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery.

Mr Diwakar a former registrar of the Avas Deep Cooperative Group Housing Society and his associates had revived the dead cooperative housing societies using forged papers and documents.

There are allegations that they made a representation to the DDA on the basis of forged papers and got    a huge amount of land allotted to their fake housing society.

According to the CBI judge, a prima facie case is made out against them.

A source familiar with the housing scene in the cooperative sector says such frauds are legion and there is a need to remove the abominable filth.

Sudha is a household name in Bihar. It conjures up images of milk and milk products in plenty. Cooperative Milk Producers Federation of Bihar (comfed) that owns it and sells its products under the brand Sudha is set to expand and popularize its business.

The company is reported to have hired the services of several advertising agencies to launch a promotional blitz to promote its brand beyond Bihar.

Comfed markets a range of milk products under the brand Sudha. The most popular products include gulab jamun, rasogulla, yoghurt [plain, sweet] paneer, lassi, ice cream and peda. Comfed does not sell them only in Bihar but also in West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and North East.

Comfed plans to augment its collection of milk from a million litres to 5 million litres in the years ahead. The Bihar dairy major has also its eye on the country’s capital Delhi and would soon pitch a tent there for doing business.

IFFCO conducted its Annual General Meeting in the NCUI auditorium in N Delhi on Tuesday with thousands of delegates gracing the occasion. Surrounded by almost all the 21 directors of the fertilizer cooperative board, Chairman N P Patel enumerated the achievements of the fertilizer giant and stressed the welfare of the farmers of the country.

Managing Director Shri U S Awasthi thanked the delegates who had come from various parts of the country and said that farmers’ interest is the focal point of IFFCO’s planning.

But more than the Chairman and MD it was the delegates paying glowing tributes to the leadership. They said that under the leadership of Dr Awasthi IFFCO is growing by leaps and bounds and has become synonymous with trust and dependability.

One of the delegates said that people buy Iffco fertilizer without hesitating for a moment as the brand name of Iffco evokes tremendous confidence.

Many delegates expressed huge thanks to Dr Awasthi for giving 20 per cent dividend year after year unfailingly. They offered him full support and wished the good work being done by him to continue.

Drawing from different states including Bihar, Punjab, Maharashtra and south India the speeches of delegates were presenting the true colour of multi-lingual and multi-cultural India.

Readers may recall that IFFCO again notched up a profit of more than a thousand crore in the financial year 2011-12 despite a depressing local and global scenario. It has also increased its turn over from Rs 22000 crore to nearly Rs 26000 crore.

Delegates were given 24 carat imported gold weighing 5 gram.

The cooperative behemoth IFFCO is having its Annual General Meeting(AGM) on Tuesday in New Delhi. It would be the biggest assembly of farmers ever organized in the country.

IFFCO is having more than 40 thousand cooperative societies as its members across the country and delegates from them have assembled in Delhi. Delegates are spilling out of the NCUI Guest house to IFFCO’s guest house and Sai Dham adjacent to NCUI.

Taking care of their board and lodging is no mean job but we are used to it as AGM takes place every year, said one of the officials of Iffco, assigned with the task.

Talking to Indian Cooperative Dr G N Saxena, Director of Cooperative Relation at IFFCO said that “each farmer requires at least about 25 gram of gold in marrying off his daughter. Our delegates are elected for a period of five years. Our Managing Director Shri U S Awasthi insists that in their five years of association with IFFCO farmers should get five gram of pure gold each year”. It adds up to 25 gram in a period of five years, he concluded.

“Thus we are giving 5 gram of 24 carat gold to each of our delegates”, Dr Saxena said.

The agenda of AGM does not include change in bye laws or anything of that kind. Routine ratification of the past year accounts and proposed expenditure would be passed in the AGM.

Heralding International Year of Cooperative Keshav Sahkari bank opened its new branch in Shakarpur area of Delhi. The bank would cater to the banking needs of east Delhi.

The occasion was graced by the former Health Minister of Delhi Dr Harshvardhan and renowned economist Mr Bajranj Lal Gupta, among others.

Speaking on the occasion the Chairman of Keshav Sahkari bank Mr Yatendra Mallick said that the eve of vaishakhi was chosen for the inauguration on a purpose. As farmers reap their harvest in this month, so have we succeeded in opening this branch after hard labour, he explained.

Elaborating the merits of Shakarpur branch of Keshav Sahkari bank, he said that it is a highly modern branch with the inclusion of every latest technology. Core banking, Lockers’ facility, no-charge on the closure of accounts are some of its features, he emphasized.

Loan processing fees are also being waived for this branch. Mr Mallick also promised to start ATM and massage alert facility soon.

He recounted the tough times he had while passing through the stringent pre-conditions laid down by Reserve Bank of India in granting permission for opening of the branch.

Mr Mallick hoped that activities like opening of a cooperative bank branch would strengthen the cooperative movement in its own small way.