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.

Harnessing the “Cooperative Advantage to Build a Better World” was the theme of a workshop organized by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Division for Social Policy and Development recently in Ethiopia.

The workshop was attended by three illustrious cooperative personalities from India- Dr Dinesh, Chief Executive of NCUI, Dr G N Saxena, Director Cooperative Development at Iffco, and Lalita
Krishnaswamy from SEWA.

Dr Dinesh was acting as an expert while Mrs Krishnaswamy presented her views on how to create and maintain a successful cooperative. SEWA is indeed a living example of this.

Dr Saxena who lectured three times during the two-day conference told Indian Cooperative that what cooperatives could do for local area development, corporates cannot even dream of. The cooperative model is usually small and involves the participation of local people. The local populace constitutes its market. Thus you have a system which is self-contained and self-sustaining, Saxena added.

Dr Saxena expounded at length the difference between Corporate and Cooperative and cited the factors such as outward flow of fund, invasion of local climate and selfishness in the case of corporates.

The workshop was excellent and we remained pushed into the seminar-hall without any break till evening. There was no sight-seeing and it was business and business alone, remarked Dr Dinesh, Chief Executive of NCUI. “We need to inculcate UN culture in our country where seminars and workshops often degenerate into casual exercises”, he lamented.

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.

IFFCO has received President Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil’s assent for inaugurating a mega cooperative conference scheduled on July 1, 2012  in Delhi.

The International Cooperative Conference would be based on the theme  “Cooperative Enterprises Build a Better World”.

In a letter written to the Managing Director Shri U S Awasthi,  PS to the President Mr Ravindra Jadhav writes “President would be pleased to inaugurate the conference on 1 July 2012 at New Delhi. The exact time will be communicated in due course”.

Buoyed with the Presidential support IFFCO is going ahead with massive preparations to make the conference a huge success. Talking to Indiancooperative.com, Director of Cooperative Development at IFFCO, Dr G N Saxena said that delegates in large number from the country as well as abroad would participate in the Conference.

Readers could recall that the year 2012 has been declared International Year of Cooperative by the United Nations. The conference would be our tribute to the cause of cooperative movement, added Dr Saxena.

Refuting the news of alleged shut down of Iffco plant in Paradip as reported in some sections of media, Director Cooperative Relations, IFFCO Dr G N Saxena said that it was all rubbish as the district administration has appreciated steps taken by the IFFCO management to tackle the situation arising out of the silo collapse.

The local Administration, on its part, has been very cooperative, he added.

Readers may recall that more than a dozen workers were injured when a large silo of the Iffco fertilizer plant collapsed on Monday in Paradip.

As IFFCO has its own hospital, it could in no time press the entire apparatus of the company into action helping the victims. It is a matter of satisfaction that all the injured are safe and there was no loss of life, Dr Saxena added.

The impact of the accident was much less on account of Monday being the Shivratri day when most of the workers were away.

Even if this is prima facie a case of corrosion of an old structure due to its proximity to the sea, Director Technical K L Singh has gone to Paradip to find out the actual cause of the collapse. Managing Director of IFFCO, Dr U S Awasthi is already there, Director Cooperative Relation said.

To a question if heads would roll in the wake of the accident Dr G N Saxena said “it happens sometimes; nobody is responsible, whom should we punish. The workers were on a contract yet we are doing everything possible. They would be paid for the period they are being treated in the hospital, he said. And the greatest relief is all of them are safe.”

Cooperative fraternity burst into jubilation on the news of passing of Constitution (111th) Bill, 2009 on Thursday by Lok Sabha. Apart from other things, the fact that forming cooperative has acquired status of Fundamental Rights gave shot in the arms of cooperative leaders.

“It is history in making” quipped Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, President of National Cooperative Union of India, the apex cooperative body in the country. We thank Sharad Pawarji and all 390 MPs who unanimously passed the bill, he added.

The Constitutional amendment bill aims at bringing uniformity in cooperative societies in terms of election , tenure and composition(one woman and one from SC/ST) of cooperative societies.

We welcome it. Country has realized the need for vibrant cooperative movement, was the massage from Shri Uday Shanker Awasthi, Managing Director of IFFCO which is a federation of more than 40 thousand cooperative societies across the nation.

Shri G N Saxena,Director of Cooperative Development at IFFCO was euphoric at  forming cooperatives being elevated to the rank of Fundamental Rights.

Eknath Thakur, another cooperative giant in the field of Urban Cooperative Banks and Chairman of the largest Urban Cooperative Bank, Saraswat welcomed the news and said that this bill would strengthen the cooperatives at grass root level.

Birendra Singh, Chairman of NCCF  said that election provision of new bill would usher in transparency and professionalization in cooperative set up. It is result of our hard work as we went twice before Standing Committee for an effective Bill, he added.

Cooperative leaders cutting across sector are happy with the news as some feel that high handedness of state political bosses would no more weaken cooperative movement. Example of  Tamil Nadu is case in point where election has not taken place for last 29 years.

Other highhandedness such as reducing or increasing the tenure of board to suit political expediency as Mayawati did in case of Uttar Pradesh would also be a thing of past.

The bill also proposes Annual General Body meet once in a year thereby correcting the practice especially in States of not calling AGM for 10 years or more.

IFFCO of India along with The Co-operative Group of UK and Desjardins of Quebec have emerged three best cooperatives in the world. They have emerged victorious beating 300 short listed cooperatives.

IFFCO’s Director (Co-operative Development) Dr G. N. Saxena will present the history of co-operatives, key business decisions and approaching challenges in the ICA’s General Assembly in Cancun, Mexico between November 14 and 18.

A record turnout is expected for ICA’s General Assembly in Cancun, Mexico in November.

Gretchen Warner, ICA Director of Membership, says registrations to date indicate that there will be around 2000 attendees  the meeting.

Best business practice from the world’s biggest co-operatives will be on display during the third day of official proceedings.

Delegates will be re-introduced by ICA Director General Charles Gould to the Global 300 project which the ICA is running in conjunction with Euricse, the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises.

Euricse ceo Gianluca Salvatori will present the methodology to be used in compiling the Global 300 co-operatives.

There will also be information presented about the new data that is intended to be collected as part of the re-launch of the Global 300 in 2012.

Following his presentation three of the world’s most successful co-operatives will present the history of their co-operatives, key business decisions and approaching challenges.

IFFCO’s Director (Co-operative Development) Dr G. N. Saxena , Len Wardle from The Co-operative Group and Stéfane Bertrand from Desjardins would present papers to expound the secret of their success.

Beating all past records, the fertilizer cooperative giant IFFCO has posted a profit of Rs 1026 crore in the financial year 2010-11. Following its principle of sharing its gain among members IFFCO Board has decided to offer 5 per cent incentive on sale of fertilizer to the member cooperatives. It means Rs 5 for each tonne sold.

Those cooperative societies which were not able to sell, Board has proposed to give them 2 per cent of their equity. It means if a society has equity share of 10 lakh, it will get Rs 20 thousand.

Talking to Indian Cooperative.com Dr G N Saxena, Director Cooperative development (IFFCO) told that this amount is over and above the 20 per cent bonus iffco has been giving to its members for last 10 years.

The last board meeting of April 25 also proved lucky for the employee as it decided to offer pension plan to them. The provisions of pension plan would be implemented from 1^st of April 2010. Dr Saxena said that without a dedicated team of employees, IFFCO would not have been there where it is today. Thus, the Board decided to share gain with them.

Managing Director Dr U S Awasthi’s vision, Board’s unflinching support and  employees’ dedication have helped us achieve this target, said a euphoric Saxena.

Iffco also shares gold coin with its delegates every year for past three year. This coin is imported from Switzerland and is 99.9 caret. It costs nearly Rs 12,500 each.

Iffco’s actual profit for the financial year 2010-11 would have been much more but for the government bonds. Iffco  had to offset  a huge amount for government bonds. Government had earlier promised to redeem the amount of Rs 346 crore on its own but later left it on IFFCO to take care. If one adds up this amount, IFFCO’s total profit hovers around Rs 1400 crore- indeed a figure Indian Cooperative movement could boast of.

Shri K Srinivasa Gowda was copted Director on the board of International Cooperative Alliance after an avoidable drama enacted by NCUI. The post fell vacant after the demise of Surender Jakhar, late Chairman of IFFCO.

Sensing an opportunity, Chandra Pal Singh led NCUI staked claim by writing to ICA that its Chairman should be copeted for the post. IFFCO’s argument was that since it held the post earlier, its nominee should go on the board till election takes place in November.

The fight raged for sometimes and NCUI wrote to all cooperative federations that they should write to ICA supporting NCUI President case.

Talking to Indian Cooperative.com Mrs Anita Manchanda justified NCUI claim saying that traditionally its President had been on the Board of NCUI. It was G H Amin, the former President who supported the candidature of Jakhar and that is how Iffco could gain entry on ICA board last time.

Talking to India Cooperative.com many Chairmen of cooperative federations confirmed the receipt of letter from NCUI asking them to support Chandra Pal’s candidature.

When Indian Cooperative.com contacted Mr G N Saxena, Director Cooperative Relation, he said that we did not get involved into any controversy and wrote a simple letter to ICA asking them to take Mr Gowda on ICA board in place of late Surendra Jakhar. ICA accepted and Mr Gowda was copted. He would attend two meetings of the Board of ICA before the election takes place in November.

All in all, Indian cooperatives could have avoided this embarrassment and could have settled the matter among themselves before cutting a sorry figure before the international cooperative audience.