Delhi based Shree Agrasen Cooperative Urban Thrift and Credit Society is planning to open a Departmental Store for thousands of members associated with it. The Society claims more than five thousand members are women.
Meanwhile, the society has once again reiterated that they have no plans to convert into a Cooperative bank.
The Chairman of the society Om Prakash Kharkia said “The motivation of opening the Departmental Store came from my visit to Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh when I attended a conference organized by Sahakar Bharati several years back. I visited several coop societies which own stores for their members providing grocery items at reasonable rates under one roof”.
Recalling the history of the society, Kharkia said “The society was established in 1978 under the leadership of Kailash Chand Gupta with a share capital of Rs 7,600. Now the society is having about 18,000 members and a share capital of more than eleven crore and a fixed deposit of near about Rs 13 crore, said its Chairman who is one of the founder members.
“Despite demonetization the society has earned a net profit of about Rs 3 crore in the last financial year. . We faced several challenges at that time but the one we are still facing is the lack of borrowers, he said to this correspondent”.
Readers would recall the society is presently in crisis because some members who lost in the elections have filed a case against the present board members alleging irregularities in the conduct of the elections.