Cooperative politics is very interesting as it witnesses the shift of power in a most unlikely manner. Virendra Singh, Chairman of NCCF must be thanking his stars for the windfall he got through the declining clouts of Nafed and its leadership.

Elected as Chairman , more than a couple of years ago, Virender Singh was taken hostage by his own Board dominated by his adversary Vishal Singh, the son of late Ajit Singh. The race for the top job was so intense that NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh had to intervene to bring truce between them.

It was rumoured that an arrangement of revolving powers has been worked out in which half the tenure of Chairmanship would go to Virendra Singh and the other half to Vishal Singh. True or not, Virendra Singh was spared the eventuality of this kind as the jinx of Nafed was on Vishal.

Bijender Singh, the strong man of Nafed and a member of the NCCF Board, always stood by Vishal. To top it,Chandra Pal Singh also nurtured fatherly affection for the young Vishal who lost his father when he was still a boy.

There were many occasions in the NCCF Board meeting when Virendra Singh would be reduced to a mere spectator while Vishal and his sympathizers would call the shots. once, a few people appointed by the Chairman as advisors were asked to quit and Virendra Singh could nothing.

But the Nafed jinx has not only weakened Vishal but also robbed Bijender Singh of much of his strength.

There are still issues that are vexing Birendra Singh. Some of the top ranking officials are also trying to have a go at the cooperative politics by siding with this or that group. They seem intent on their own selfish considerations while uncertainty surrounds the future of the cooperative leadership.

This has led to delay in many of the projects of NCCF in the past. Hope an invigorated Chairman would take calls, pressing urgently on the apex consumer cooperative body sooner than later.

Given that there is a shortage of storage space in the state, the UP government has called a halt to the wheat procurement by the close of June.

There are seven agencies altogether including NAFED and NCCF involved in procuring grains. All of them have been stopped.

According to a govt. official, Pradeshik Cooperative Federation has also been  asked  to stop buying  wheat from farmers  without delay.

Worried about the safety of grains lying in open spaces, the govt has decided to organize the optimal distribution of grains through PDS.

National Cooperative Union of India, the apex body of cooperatives in the country is conducting membership satisfaction survey these days. A sample of questionnaire has been sent to all the cooperative federations that are its members for feedback.

As reported earlier NCUI is caught into existential woes.

In its survey there is an attempt at soul-searching. The tumultuous journey for the past couple of years when it faced complete non-cooperation from the government at one hand and a lack of trust owing to lecturer scam on the other; may have motivated it to go in for such survey.

The survey asks questions such as: do you think the activities of NCUI are in line with your needs, what is your overall satisfaction level with NCUI, are you happy with role of NCUI in Government policy formulation or such as how do you see the overall performance of NCUI in the last one year?

It is obvious that the apex organization is trying to come to terms with the new reality. It knows that if it has to survive it can do so only on its own strength. And its strength lies with the member cooperative federations which number 204 in total.

The list of its members include
National Federations-17 , Multi State Cooperative Societies-38 , State Cooperative Unions-31, State Cooperative Banks-18 , State Coop. Agri. & Rural Dev. Banks-14, Marketing Federations -16, Consumer Federations-8 , Housing Federations-10, Urban Banks Federations-10, Tribal Federations-2 , Other Sectororal Federations-23 and Miscellaneous-17

NCUI has not been taking its members as seriously as it should have taken. Standing on the crutch of the government it dreamt of ushering in cooperative movement in the country without them.

A total membership of 204 cooperative federations is no mean achievement and is enough to sustain NCUI and the cooperative movement.

Its training program has not made any mark in the cooperative movement of the country as scores of success stories which have been featured in this news portal have shown that the movement has grown due to individuals and not due to the NCUI or govt.

Unless it redefines itself and throw it headlong into rekindling of the cooperative movement with the help of its members its existence would always remain in doldrums. Government may help you to survive by getting salaries and perks; it cannot carry the movement forward. Only cooperators can do so.

Nafed and NCCF agri and consumer cooperatives respectively are at the vanguard of Delhi government scheme through which it aims to revive its sagging fortunes.

Following the Congress party’s debacle in the recent civic election, Delhi government has been burning the midnight oil to devise ways and means of reconnecting itself with the poor in the nation’s capital.

This is the trigger for restarting a scheme of selling wheat flour at a reduced price.

The Delhi Congress party has pegged the unusually high prices of essential commodities as the main reason responsible for its miserable performance in the elections.

The wheat flour would be sold to the poor consumers through several hundred outlets mainly managed by the cooperative organizations including NAFED and NCCF.

The date of hearing on NCUI’s President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav’s petition against the ruling of arbitrator has been deferred to 30th April. In the hearing on Wednesday the court of ADJ gave this new date as the required papers were not made available to the court.

Talking to Indiancooperative.com the advocate of NCUI President, Mr V P Singh said that the opposite party did not submit replies leading to deferment of the hearing. In reply to the question how strong is case for Chandra Pal Singh, Mr V P Singh said “I am his advocate and I cannot give any answer other than saying that it is a strong case for the President”.

Elaborating Mr V P Singh said about ten national level cooperative federations send their representatives to National Cooperative Union of India. The four IFFCO, KRIBHCO, NAFED and NCCF have their representatives based on their contributions to the apex body.
“These representatives are not nominated but elected in their parent cooperatives and therefore to call them nominated is not correct”, Mr Singh argued. He also mentioned the person who has challenged the President’s election is not an affected party.

When Indiancooperative.com contacted Rajender Sharma, the original petitioner to find out the reason behind the deferment of hearing, he said necessary papers from the office of Central Registrar could not reach the court.

Readers would recall Rajendra Sharma had challenged Chandra Pal Singh’s accession to President-ship in the court of the government appointed Arbitrator. The latter ruled against the President. Later Mr Chandra Pal Singh appealed against the ruling in the court.

The Governing Council of NCUI is meeting Thursday amid uncertainty. Though majority of members are keeping their cards close to their chest, the fear that some of them may raise the issue in the board could not be ruled out.

The 22nd death anniversary of freedom fighter and legendary leader of the Indian cooperative movement late Shri Tapeshwar Singh was observed in Delhi on Monday. His admirers had turned up in strength to remember and pay respects to their leader.

A large number of people associated with the cooperative movement attended the function. His family members were also present on the occasion.

The function began with paying of  floral tributes followed by a rendering of devotional songs. One of the leader’s grandsons accompanied the singer on tabla.

Talking to Indian Cooperative.com Shri Ranjit Singh, his son and a cooperator in his own right narrated his father’s tireless efforts to set up a web of cooperatives in the remote areas.

“He would leave early morning everyday  by cycle with  sattoo and travel far and wide motivating people to participate in the cooperative movement”, Ranjit said.

Tapeshwar Babu as he was fondly called by his followers, rose to the highest positions in the cooperative world. He was Chairman of NCCF, NAFED and was also the President of National Cooperative Union of India.

National Consumer Cooperative Federation (NCCF) Chairman Mr Birendra Singh has blamed crisis of cooperative leadership in the country behind governmental indifference to this vital mode of economics. For your voice to be heard there should unison and there should be unity of purpose among cooperative leaders, Mr Singh said while talking to Indian Cooperative.com in New Delhi.

Readers may recall that apart from the annual budgetary plan even the 12^th Five year Approach paper have given a royal miss to the word “cooperative”. There is nothing new in it and it is now for more than 15 years that the word cooperative is missing from all discussions of budget, Birendra Singh said.

Union Finance Minister meets everybody worth name in pre-budget consultations while we keep fighting for exemption from income tax. We have petitioned Sharad Pawarji, our agriculture minister a thousand times on this issue. But would government take us seriously if we do not stand on our feet and pay income tax, he asked. I want cooperatives to be viable and pay tax, Mr Singh asserted.

Talking of NCCF viability he conceded that for last 6 months consumer cooperative has suffered on account of lack of professional staff. ” We have conducted interviews recently and are in process of appointing some professionally trained senior men which would help us achieve our goal, the Chairman added.

We also suffer from lack of clear-cut field of operation and have petitioned government for guidance. We may emerge as nodal agency in the field of medicines shortly. NCCF may also play an important role in Food security plank of the government, he added.

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.

Cooperative societies generally do not allow scrutiny from outside sources. Till date Nafed ,Nccf and Kribhco are fighting cases in Delhi High court against being pushed under RTI Act.

But if draft of Goa Lokayukta Bill submitted to Chief Minister Digamber Kamat is to be believed, it allows lokayukta to take cooperative societies under its ambit.

According to draft bill Lokayukta will be empowered to take action against all functionaries of cooperative societies and others which are getting grant of more than Rs one lakh from the government or foreign or public contributions.

After formally accepting the draft, Kamat told reporters that the Bill would be tabled before the forthcoming State Legislative Assembly session beginning from October 4.

The draft bill gives power to Lokayukta to enquire suo moto as well as on complaint and reference by government into all allegations of corruption, favouritism, nepotism, lack of integrity and others.

Goa Law Commission Chairman Ramakant Khalap and a cooperative leader Khalap said no previous authorisation or sanction will be required to take cognisance of any complaint or to probe into any offence of corruption or to prosecute an offender.

The Chief Minister Kamat is determined to push the bill amidst indication that other states may follow the suit sooner than later. Anna effect is at last happening in cooperatives too!

Season of AGMs in Multi State Cooperative Societies has begun. AGMs are annual event when all the delegates from across the country come to participate in the meeting of Multi state cooperative societies.

NAFED, NCCF, KRIBHCO, NCUI and other multi state societies are going to have their AGM soon.

AGMs are notorious for being a routine and perfunctory affair, though in bylaws books it has right to recall and reject not only the Chairman but also the entire board of Directors.

The agenda of AGM is usually prepared in advance and sent to the delegates so that he or she discusses the issue at local level with all the participating societies.

Accounts of current year as well as that of coming year are passed in the AGM. If there is question of change in by laws, it is AGM only which has the power to do so.

But in practice AGM is usually under control of a few which usually includes Chairman, Managing Director and a few close associates. They read out the agenda and try to get it passed in great hurry.

Soon after, gifts are distributed to delegates and every one rush for lunch-thereby reducing the great democratic process into a farce.

Members are usually not allowed to speak out their mind as speakers are chosen in advance. Problems plaguing the cooperative are not put before the AGM and delegates are hardly given a chance to speak their mind on issues of corruption or favouratism being practiced in the name of cooperative movement.

Cooperative movement cannot succeed till democracy is practiced at its best.Indiancooperative.com wishes delegates to raise issue in unison against those who are belittling the name of cooperatives.

In this series we would bring out issues plaguing each multi state cooperative societies whose AGM is slated soon. And Indiancooperative .com would exhort the delegates to effectively raise their voice so that hanky-panky in cooperatives is stopped.

Delegates should recognize their power as it is because of them that cooperative is functioning. Small gifts are their anyway but nothing should stop them from fighting their cause. They can change the chairman and the entire board if only they remain united.