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.

Over 6.6 million tonnes of wheat worth nearly Rs 12,000 crore (rpt) nearly Rs 12,000 crore of the government stock lying in the open runs high risk of damages during the monsoon season, the Food Minister K V Thomas admitted in N Delhi.

“We are concerned about 6.6 million tonnes of wheat kept open in unscientific way mainly in Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. We will give utmost priority to move this wheat to safe place in monsoon,” he told reporters here.

Thomas has also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggesting a cap on procurement. “We have to work out a mechanism to limit the procurement as per our needs,” he said.

At present, the government has a stock of 82.3 million tonnes against the storage capacity of 64 million tonnes. Of 50 million tonnes of wheat procured by the government, 27 million tonnes is kept in the open, of which 6.6 million tonnes is lying in an unscientific way.

Thomas noted that although storage capacity of FCI has increased by 40 per cent in last five years, there is still storage deficit as the government procurement reached an all-time high following record output of wheat and rice for the last two consecutive years.

He said that the Food Ministry in consultation with Food Corporation of India (FCI) has chalked out a plan to immediately evacuate the wheat under threat of damage.

As a contingent measure, the FCI has been directed to raise stack size in case of both wheat and rice. “This way, FCI would be able to accommodate 5-10 lakh tonnes more stock,” he said. FCI has been directed to hire private storage space including those of cooperative sugar mills.

The government, on June 19, also decided to offload extra eight million tonnes of food grains via rations shops and in open market to ease the storage pressure.

(with input from PTI)

SEWA Cooperative bank founder and revolutionary at changing lives of women Ela Bhatt has been selected for the prestigious Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2011.
The award has been constituted by Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust and is decided by an international jury headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Trust Secretary Suman Dubey said Bhatt’s life is a lesson in dedication and commitment, in caring for the under-privileged and weak, in devoting oneself to the welfare of others, in living by principles and making a difference to the lives of millions.

Bhatt has been selected for the award for her “lifetime achievements in comprehensively empowering women in India and elsewhere through grassroots entrepreneurship, access to shelter, healthcare, micro-finance, micro-insurance, skills, legal services, collective bargaining power and many other means, and thereby promoting equitable development and peace, following Gandhian path of self- reliance and non-violence”, he said.

A labour lawyer by training, Bhatt founded the SEWA in 1972 and under her leadership, the NGO has grown into a 13 lakh strong organisation playing a pioneering role in socio-economic and political empowerment of women.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that a delegation from the state will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to apprise him of the problems faced by sugar industry in the state.

“A delegation would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh soon to inform him about the various issues faced by the sugar industries in the state,” he said in a statement here.

Various issues were put before the Chief Minister during a meeting with members of the Co-operative Sugar Societies held in Mumbai on Thursday.

Some of the important demands made by the sugar societies in the meeting were permission to export 25 lakh tonnes sugar, 50 per cent import duty on sugar, and that the Centre should prepare a 50 lakh tonne buffer stock of sugar, the statement said.

Following the meeting, Chavan decided to form a joint delegation of members of the state government and the sugar industry to put forth the issues before the Central

government, the statement added.

Sharad Pawar ,Union Agricultural Minister letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of gugar export  seems to have made an impact. An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Food headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is meeting on Thursday to take a decision on allowing additional sugar exports, Food Minister K V Thomas said.

In April, the government had allowed 5,00,000 tonnes of sugar exports under Open General Licences (OGL), which enable shipment without any restrictions. However, the industry last week demanded permission to export an additional 1.5 million tonnes in view of higher domestic output this year.

“The EGoM will discuss issues of allowing further sugar exports and distribution of additional foodgrains for APL families,” Thomas told reporters.

The panel of ministers will also consider the suggestions of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar with regard to additional sugar exports, he said.

Pawar, who is one of the key members of the EGoM, will not be present at the meeting, as he is in Paris for the G-20 meeting.

Last week, Pawar had written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to allow the further export of sugar, as India only has one month to cash in on high global

prices of the sweetener.

There is a case for more export of sugar, as domestic production is high and global prices are ruling firm at a premium of Rs 500-600 per quintal vis-a-vis domestic sugar prices, he had said.

Sugar production in India, the world’s second largest producer and biggest consumer, is estimated at 24.2 million tonnes in the 2010-11 season (October-September), as against

18.8 million tonnes in the previous season. Annual domestic demand for sugar stands at 22-22.5 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, according to sources, the Food Ministry has proposed to distribute 5 million tonnes of grains to 11.5 crore APL families via ration shops till March, 2012, in addition to already allocated stocks, to create space for the new crops.

The government had earlier announced a similar plan for both APL and BPL families, but offtake by state governments has been poor.

Foodgrain stocks with the government had risen to an all-time high of 65.60 million tonnes as of June 1 due to bumper crop production last year and higher procurement

prices.

The country has a total storage capacity of 62 million tonnes.

In a major setback to aracanut cooperatives spread in the southern states Supreme Court refused to lift the ban on sale of tobacco products like gutka and pan masala in plastic sachets, a bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan allowed all impediment applications of various stakeholders, saying the court will hear all their concerns.

The bench also directed Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam to file the government’s reply to issues raised by the stakeholders within four weeks.

The bench also directed the government to make available to concerned parties within two weeks the copies of the report dated February 17, 2011 on use of tobacco.

The court will start its hearing from July 20 and said there would be no adjournments in the case.

Earlier the government had notified the law banning plastic packaging of non-smoking tobacco products on February 4 after the bench had rebuked it on February 2 for not implementing the law and asked it to notify the same within two days.

Endorsing the Rajasthan High Court order, the bench had on December 7 last restrained gutka, pan masala and chewing tobacco manufacturers from using plastic as packaging material for their products from March 1 this year.

Earlier, aracanut cooperative leaders led by Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yedurrapa had met Prime Minister and Law Minister to seek one year of moratorium on the government order of banning plastic sachets.

Several Members of Parliament from the states of Karnataka, Kerala and other states rallied around these cooperatives against government order.Leaders were pinning hope on April 13 hearing of the matter in Supreme Court.

The Union Cabinet on Thursday  approved the introduction of the Multi-State Co¬operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2010 in the Parliament.

These amendments are intended to enhance the public faith in the cooperatives and to ensure better accountability of the management towards its members and the law of the land.

It is proposed to define active member to ensure the member’s active participation in the affairs of the society. Time bound decision by the society for admitting members is proposed to prevent inordinate delay by the society in admitting members.

A clause is proposed to be inserted for ensuring that the members make their payment due to the society to be eligible for exercising their rights as a member.

It is proposed to allow the MSCS to refund full or part of the share capital subscribed by the Government to reduce/eliminate Government control of these cooperatives.

To ensure presence of experts on the board, it is proposed to provide that the co-opted directors should have experience in the field of banking, management, finance or specialization in any field relating to the objects and activities undertaken by the MSCS.

The Directors will also be required to disclose the interest of their relatives in the affairs of the society.

It is proposed to give freedom to the Board to constitute an Executive Committee and other committees or sub-committees as specified in the bye -laws.

However, it is proposed that every society shall be required to constitute an Audit and Ethics Committee of the Board. The existing restriction on borrowings by the society is proposed to be relaxed.

The proposed amendments also include provisions for filing of applications, documents, inspections, payment of fees, charges and issuance of certificates of registration and maintenance of documents by Central Registrar in electronic forms.

It also provides for cancellation of registration if obtained by mis-representations of facts, submission of false or misleading information, suppression of material facts or fraud etc.

Reservation of seat for the SC/ST and women on the board, constitution of interim board of experts for rehabilitation of a sick society, election authority for conduct of election and Cooperative Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Fund for rehabilitation and development of cooperative societies have also been proposed.

The proposed amendments also include provision for Cooperative Information Officer and Appellate Authority to provide information to the members about the affairs and management of the society.

It also has penal provisions for non filing of returns; non-admission of new members by the administrators when the board is under supersession.

Background

The objective of Multi-State Co-operative Societies (MSCS) Act 2002 is to facilitate the organization and functioning of the cooperative societies having jurisdiction in more than one States.

This Act which came in force with effect from 19.8.2002 was enacted to replace the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 1984. The Act facilitates voluntary formation and democratic functioning of multi-state cooperative societies as member driven institutions based on self-help and mutual aid and to enable them to promote their economic and social betterment and provides for functional autonomy.

Based on the experience of implementation of the MSCS Act, 2002,  and recommendations made by the High Powered Committee under the chairmanship of Shri S.O. Patil, a need was felt to further amend the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002.

It felt the  need to keep the legislation in tune with the changing economic policies and to facilitate the multi-state co-operative societies to take advantage of the new and emerging opportunities.