After a gap of three months the ruling party at the Centre, BJP convened a second meeting of cooperative leaders to discuss issues confronting the Sector at their Ashoka Road Office in New Delhi last week.
It was the second meeting in two and a half years after Narendra Modi came to power-underlining the apathy of the govt towards the cooperative sector, quipped a cooperator on condition of anonymity.
The meeting ended without any concrete conclusion as neither effort to revive the Cooperative Cell was initiated nor any draft policies concerning cooperatives were passed.
The Cell which was dissolved earlier is yet to be reconstituted though more than two and a half years have elapsed since the Modi govt assumed office. BJP cooperators who do not wish to be named often complain of lack of interest among senior leaders in cooperative matters.
The leaders however expressed their opinion and talked of freeing the co-operative sector from mafia’s stranglehold. They also felt cooperative is the most important medium for reaching out to rural areas and therefore there is a need to renew the efforts.
Sahakar Bharati patron Satish Marathe who participated in the meeting wrote on his FB wall” The meeting was chaired by Shri Ramlalji, General Secretary (Organisation). Hon Sh Purushottambhai Rupala, MOS, Co Operation, GOI, Sh Bhupendraji Yadav, MP, Gen Secretary and Sh Shyam ji Jaju, Vice President were also present.”
“The meeting was attended by Co-operators from Maharashtra, UP, MP, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand, etc”, he wrote further.
“At the meeting, Sahakar Bharati was represented by S/s Jyotindra Mehta, Satish Marathe & Vijayji Dewangan’, he said.
Besides Sahakar Bharati leaders and top officials, Ashok Dabas, Ashok Bajaj, Ashok Thakur, Preetpal Belchandan and others were also present in the meeting.
However, leaders including Dileepbhai Sanghani and Bhairon Singh Sekhawat were conspicuous by their absence.
The meeting lasted one and a half hours.