Police has registered a case of forgery in connection with a fraudulent withdrawal of several lakhs of rupees from a cooperative bank in Ballia district of UP.

The cooperative division of UP police is likely to arrest several people accused in the case including a BSP MLA, a former minister’s son and 12 others.

Sources add investigations have revealed that a BSP MLA had been a partner in a tainted construction agency.

Buzz  is  the arrest warrants  issued  by  a Varanasi court  that  handles  the  cooperative   cases  would soon be handed over to the local police and all those involved in the fraudulent transactions would be arrested without delay.

UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has said in no uncertain terms that the sugar cane cooperative societies are important and their views are taken into consideration while fixing mill wise areas in the state.

The principal work of the cooperative societies is to promote the interests of farmers and ensure supply from member farmers but laissez faire policy would mess up things.

Reiterating his firm commitment to uphold the interests of farmers, Mr Yadav said de-regulation of the cane sector would expose farmers to serious difficulties as sugar mills would no longer be subject to any control.

The sugar mills could exercise their freedom in a negative way and their procurement could be skewed, he cautioned.

Mr Yadav was airing his views after his meeting with Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman Mr Rangarajan in the capital.

The end of intervention in the cane sector would spell a fierce price competition and the sugar mills could take undue advantage of their crushing capacity, Mr Yadav noted.

While talking about the foreign trade in sugar, Mr Yadav called for extension of special facilities to the mills of North India as they are far away from the sea ports.

There is no fund for the national Federation of Labour cooperatives as its staffs go without salaries for months together. But one of its members from Uttar Pradesh, LACCFED became a multi-crore company in no time.

The Labour and Construction Cooperation Federation (LACCFED) involved in a multi-crore scam is under police investigation now.

There are serious allegations being levelled against the functionaries of the federation and several projects involving hundreds of crores of rupees are being enquired into by the police. All the allegations date back to the period when Mayawati was in power.

Talking to Indian Cooperative, the Managing Director of National Federation of Labour and Construction Cooperative Mr R M Pandey said t “though LACCFED is our member, we have no link to its business deals”.

The police investigation is mainly focused on finding out if the office of the federation operated from the premises owned by a political party or agency officials forged the papers for the purpose.

Initially, the federation was a minuscule entity handling a couple of lakhs but later the BSP govt. suddenly entrusted it with construction projects involving hundreds of crores of rupees. The sudden transformation of the federation   arouses suspicion, police say.

While one of the accused a former GM of the federation was recently arrested but was soon let off on bail, some of the accused are still evading arrest.

Sources say some political heavyweights are involved in the scam and police investigations are indicating in the direction.

BSP, however, has expressed its vehement anger at the insinuation that it has anything to do with the scam.

Dear sir

A cooperative housing society was registered in the name of Modi Xerox Employees’ Co-operative Housing Society Ltd. in the year 1995.

Land was procured, developed and plots were sold to the beneficiaries.  Most of the plots were sold to those persons who have more than one house and are not willing to construct any house in future.

The society President and Secretary along with their nominated members managed the things till now.  There was a huge amount of money with the society for future expenses and development. All of a sudden the Secretary went off. The president went off by resigning and they now say that there is no fund available.

Can the members constitute a new committee by election/nomination process and inform to Registrar?

Where to complaint against the persons who have eaten up the fund?

The present Secretary is hiding all the facts and protecting the previous President and Secretary. What action can we take against the present Secretary who is holding all the documents and funds?

With Regards

Co-ordination Committee Members

Modi Xerox Employees’ Housing Society Ltd.

Rampur (Uttar Pradesh)

I C Naik

This is a classic example of a phenomenon that has hampered the development of cooperatives the most. On one hand few members in every cooperative are hyper-active causing harm, on the other vast majority is completely indifferent to the activities of a suspect few.

This bodes ill not only for society’s interests but also for the interest of individual member.

What you need to do immediately is to handover a requisition signed by 1/5th members  to the Secretary requesting him to  hold an extraordinary general body meeting to review the functioning of the Society through a Special Audit/Investigation to be requested for by an application to the Registering Authority.

Before taking action for money laundering a reliable documentary evidence has to be gathered through this process. Once the audit/investigation report is in hands things should hopefully start falling in place.

If the Secretary does not act on the requisition, hand over the same to the Registering Authority.

Cooperative sector of Uttar Pradesh is benefitting from the politics of give and take. The central govt is showing to be overly friendly to the new govt in Lucknow.

It has approved two big irrigation projects for the state with 90 percent central funding. Additionally, it has readily agreed to give Rs 900 crore to the cooperative sector in the state.

Sources say, many more projects are soon likely to be sanctioned by the center for UP.

However, the center acting as a munificent benefactor towards UP is being interpreted as a quid pro quo for the state’s ruling party
extending its political support to the Congress party at the center.

The new govt in Lucknow seems resolved to quicken the pace of development in the state. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has recently made several declarations including the one on labour creation on a big scale in a bid to redeem his poll promises.

Lucknow would soon send a proposal of Rs. 3.61 lakh crore to be approved by the planning commission of India for development of Uttar Pradesh in the next years.

The Yadav govt is at work bringing in a new integrated policy for cooperation and there are indications that the cooperative sector would figure prominently in its calculations.

Sources say several new sugar mills would be established in the state and the cooperative sector would be involved in running some of them.

Once again, there are allegations of corruption against officials working in the department of cooperation in Uttar Pradesh.  The government has put them under suspension.

Shivpal  Singh Yadav, Cooperative minister has charged that these officials  had committed serious irregularities during the Mayawati  government. The names of the officials have not been made public so far.

According to the minister, appropriate legal action would be taken against all the erring officials.

The new government of Akhilesh Singh Yadav and especially Shiv Pal Singh Yadav, the cooperative minister has been focusing on the cooperative sector in the state in a big way. But hope it is not a witch-hunting of those officials who were active during Mayawati’s regime.

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.

Sugar industry sources say low precipitation this year has affected sugar production.  There is   apprehension that the production is likely to fall by a million tonnes. That is to say, the country would be able to have only 25 million tonnes of sugar this year.

Maharashtra and Karnataka are the two leading sugar producing states in the country but low rain has forced them to report reduced production.

However, there is good news that Uttar Pradesh another major sugar producing state is expected to keep up its level of sugar production.

According to official estimates, as there has been planting of sugarcane on a much bigger arcrage this year across the country, there would be no problem meeting the domestic demands for the commodity.

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.