Question

Dear Sir,

I am one of the director of the Society ”Shri Guru Maa Multipurpose Suppliers & Advertising Co-Operative Society Ltd”. This society is based at a district level in Madhya Pradesh. I want to know about schemes, policies, law and regulations to serve the citizen better.

In specific terms tell me if a cooperative society can run a Petrol Pump?

Thanks & Regards,

Saurabh Agarwal

I C Naik

As a Director you have statutory and moral duties which are quite onerous. You need to know a lot in case you wish to devote significant time for the service of the people through an important organization like a Multipurpose Society. It will also be a long drawn affair demanding patience too.

You need to start the study from your own Society’s Office. It’s a place full of knowledge one needs to take benefit of. You may go through the application made for Society’s registration and any correspondence exchanged in that connection with the promoters and the Registering Authority. You will know a lot about the scheme of the society.

Then you must read the registered bye Laws very carefully including its objects. Try to look for a possibility of opening a Petrol Pump in the Objects. Sparingly but essentially, a reference to M P Societies Act and Rules will also be necessary to get thorough understanding of certain aspects relevant to your questions. Society office should have a set of this and if not buy one as that is compulsory for the Society to have it for reference by its members.

Buy a good commentary on Multi-Purpose Society. You can search on goggle or other search engines which contain unbelievable wealth of information. After this you may still have queries because that is the measure of your interest so do raise at relevant time. We will be extremely delighted to help you solve them.

BJP farmers’ organisation has lauded the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s bold decision to ensure the provision of interest free loans to farmers in the state.

The president of the organisation Bansilal Gurjar says the historic proposal sets MP apart from other states underscoring the pro-farmer attitude of the BJP govt in MP.

Gurjar claims there has not been a single farmer suicide in the state and the interests of farmers are in good hands here.

Nearly Rs.10 thousand crore would be disbursed as loans through both cooperative and commercial banks.

BJP farmers organisation has criticised the central govt for its anti-farmer attitude and urged it to grant constitutional status to Agricultural Cost Price Commission and to set up soon Agricultural Cost Monitoring Commission.

The recent increase in the prices of fertilizers is the straw that is breaking the camel’s back, as it were. The development   is causing angry reaction all over the country.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan began a token fast protesting the unusual spike in the fertilizer prices.

A number of bigwigs from the BJP were present when the CM began his fast. They showed support for their Chief Minister on the issue.

The MP State President of the party Prabhat Jha was also present on the occasion.

Readers could recall that BJP government of Madhya Pradesh was the first state in the country which celebrated International Year of Cooperatives, 2012 and is always eager to support cooperative movement.

The Madhya Pradesh government is endeavoring to procure as much wheat as it can from the farmers in the state.

The Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan is personally overseeing the whole process of procurement and checking if it is being done correctly.

Mr Chauhan has made it clear that any irregularities or corrupt practices in procuring grains from farmers would be severely dealt with.

State officials informed Chief Minister that the cooperative societies were in a position to provide farmers with enough fertiliser.

Directors of the Cooperative Banks and Societies in Madhya Pradesh will soon have a lot of money to spend. Their allowances have spiked considerably.
The Commissioner and Registrar Cooperatives and Cooperative societies have just issued orders  in this connection.

The news of a big increase being effected in their various allowances has caused a feeling of great happiness among the officials of the cooperative organizations in Madhya Pradesh.

The move has,however, provoked some people into excoriating it as an act aimed at pauperizing the cooperative institutions.

The rampant corruption in cooperative department was exposed when a cooperative inspector was arrested red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 in Indore of Madhya Pradesh.

The bribe money was meant to give clearance to an audit and balance sheet of a client. That the Cooperative Inspector had demanded a bribe of one lakh was scented by the Lokayukta police which swung into action and arrested the culprit.

Rakesh Kumar Jain the culprit was to receive first installment of the bribe money when he was apprehended.He had earlier demanded Rs 5 lakh but the client agreed at one lakh amount and informed Lokayukta police of the deal.

The cooperative inspectors are big nuisance in the states who try to nip the upcoming cooperative societies in the bud.

The present govt in Madhya Pradesh takes the cooperative sector seriously and feels undergirded by a dense cooperative network the economy of the state could waltz through to a rapid turnaround.

The Cooperative Minister of the state recently called upon farmers to pay their short-term loans by the end of March so that they could avail themselves of one percent interest loan benefit.

It is worth noting that M.P. is the only state in the country that gives farmers loan on one percent interest, reimbursing the remaining 11 percent from its exchequer.

The minister was addressing a group of cooperationists in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh.

The recent three day fishermen’s ,macchua panchayat, held in Bhopal was a great success in that it yielded many  benefits for the state fishermen.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan  who inaugurated the panchayat announced that the name of the Fisheries Department would be changed to Fishermen’s Welfare and Fisheries Development Department, so that it could focus on the development of fisheries as well as welfare of fishermen in the state.

A Fisheries Board would be constituted and a member of the fishermen community would be made its Chairman. Assistance to the tune of Rs1.50 lakh would be provided to the registered fisheries cooperative societies of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe categories and also to the societies run by fishermen from other categories, Chouhan said.

The Chief Minister also announced one per cent interest rate loan to fishermen on the lines of the loan provided to the state farmers. The fishermen from other categories would also get a financial assistance of Rs 15,000 each for fish breeding, similar to assistance provided to the scheduled castes and tribal categories.

Chouhan said that the state government would provide guarantee to the education loans obtained by children of fishermen for medical and engineering courses.

This year 1,000 houses are being built for fishermen, while 2,000 houses would be built next year for them at subsidised rates, Chauhan said.

He said that the state government would urge the Centre to open Fisheries Science College to promote application of modern technology in the fisheries sector.

Some people choose to thrive on controversies and M P Cooperative minister Gauri Shankar Bisen  is one of them.  He often indulges in acts that spark public controversies.

The other day, he was shown on TV Networks getting his shoelaces tied up by a tribal boy at a public function at Khabra in Madhya Pradesh.

The incident has provoked the local congress leaders into condemning the BJP’s medieval culture and demanding the minister’s immediate resignation.

Bisen has however denied that the man tying up his shoe lace was a tribal boy. Due to my illness I do not bend on doctor’s advice and I have kept a personal attendant to help me out, he told media later.

Whatever be the truth, the incident has given fresh fodder to the Congress and the matter is sure to escalate into pro and anti-tribal slogans by political parties.

Many cooperatives die despite heroic effort if it does not get help from government or big brothers of cooperative. A case in point is Kesla Women’s Broiler Poultry Producers’ Cooperative in Madhya Pradesh.

It is country’s first women poultry cooperative which was began a decade ago. It was doing fine till recently. But some private players, sensing the success of the cooperative lowered the price of chicken so much that poultry cooperative could be washed out. It is an old corporate game.

The cooperative has  900 women-members from 34 hamlets in tribal belt of  Suktawa village. Its Suktawa chicken brand is quite successful  in the local market

The male members of the families supply them in nearby markets of Suktawa, Betul, Multai, Bhopal, Itarsi, Hoshangabad, Panchmarhi and Pipariya.

IB Group, the private player has pegged down the price of broiler chicken. The competitor firm has fixed the broiler chicken price at Rs 40 per kg to wholesalers, while the helpless cooperative says it cannot climb down from its present Rs 45 per kg.

State government  has refused to intervene and help the poor tribal women involved in this cooperative., though it does not mind organizing global conference in the name of cooperative.

NCUI being the apex cooperative should move forward to help such cooperatives which are facing problem despite putting in great effort.