The 29th Annual General Meeting of BISCOMAUN could be called noteworthy as it was held amidst an unprecedented cooperative solidarity on Saturday in Patna with the participation of even those cooperators who never came to its AGM in the past. The AGM also saw a fresh optimism as far as business and growth of the co-operative federation was concerned.
The AGM exuded a new-found confidence in the wake of Biscomaun venturing out big time in selling neem-coated urea with the help of IFFCO in the state. And this confidence was understandable as in the very first three months of Kharif season, it sold close to 85,000 metric tons in the state. The cooperative federations have been educating farmers by putting advertisements in the news papers. “We declared a war against black-marketing of urea”, underlined Sunil Singh, Chairman of Biscomaun.
With growth in business and truce among leaders, Biscomaun is poised to sell 1.5 lac metric tons by March, 2018, said its young Chairman Singh. “We are doing what the state govt normally does, today we have stocked urea of Rs 120 crore in off season so that the black-marketing could be checked and farmers get it on time without any premium, said Sunil.
Biscomaun has big plans for the future, he said. It aims to equip all its 91 sale counters with POS machines. It is renovating its godowns and has got 80 lap tops from IFFCO; it has created the pool of trained manpower to be in tune with modern business climate, claimed its Chairman.
Simultaneously, Biscomaun plans to set up four marketing complexes on its land in Forbesganj, Shekhpura, Harnaut and Deoghar. Biscomaun has become diversified with venturing out in the fields of edible oil, rice, Jute etc.
The turnaround of Biscomaun could be gauged from the fact that without taking a dime from the govt it has been disbursing salaries to its staff-members from Bihar to Jharkhand on the first of every month through RTGS. “Not only that we also organize camps from time to time to clear dues of former staff members as directed by the Honourable High Court”, informs its Chairman.
To a pointed question if Biscomaun could be said to be out of the woods, Sunil said “yes indeed we have earned profit but this is negated by the arrears of Rs 50 crore that accrued at the time when Biscomaun was under govt control. Readers would note that Biscomaun was under an Administrator from 1988 to 2003.
“Ever since I have taken over I do not remember seeking a penny from the govt”, recalls Sunil.
Apart from the pleasant business prospects, the aspect of cooperative solidarity being on display seemed to have enthused the participants in the AGM. Nafed Director Vishal Singh and State Cooperative Union Chairman Vinay Sahi who are often seen as rivals of Biscomaun Chairman were present on the occasion. Their presence made Sunil quip “this is an unprecedented AGM in which cooperators have joined hands together forgetting all their differences”.
All the Chairmen of district central cooperative banks numbering 22, their vice chairman and all the top cooperators of the state took part in the AGM, informed Mr Sunil Singh. Madhuri Singh, daughter of the legendary Tapeshwar Singh, Amar Pandey, Vijay Kumar Singh were present along with the Directors of Biscomaun which included senior cooperator Panchananbabu.
Other notable participants included Ramesh Chaubey, Mahesh Rai, Ramudar Chaudhary, Umesh Verma, Narendra Kumar Singh, Jeetendra Singh, Girendranath Tiwari, Manoj Kumar Singh, Jeetendra Kumar( MLA), Mrs Amita Bhushan( MLA), Raj Kishor Prasad and some others. There were 300 participants and it was held in Patna Institute of NCCT.
