A review meeting on the progress of the proposal for revival of NAFED took place on Tuesday in which Union State Cooperative Minister Mohanbhai Kundaria participated along with a host of Ministry officials.
The cooperative side was led by NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav and comprised of senior cooperators Bijender Singh and Vice-Chairman of Nafed Dileepbhai Sanghani.
Lauding the govt efforts Bijender Singh said such sincere efforts to revive Nafed were never made in the past by the Congress govt. Incidentally, Singh belongs to the Congress party but he said he has no qualms talking about the good work being done by the BJP govt with respect to Nafed.
“We are sure Nafed is going to be revived sooner than later”, he said soon after attending the meeting.
Indian Cooperative has gathered that Kundariya insisted on finalization of the Cabinet note for the revival. The matter has been pending since long the Minister wanted to inch forward. He has put his ministry’s officials on the job of readying a note on the revival package to be presented before Cabinet sooner than later.
It would be done within three months, said Bijender when this correspondent asked him on the timeline. Anyway Nafed would not survive for another 6 months should the revival package be delayed”, he cautioned.
We have decided to hand over our assets worth 700-800 crore to the govt ; it may use it the way it feels like but Nafed needs a revival package sooner than later, underlined the former Chairman of the agri-cooperative.
Readers would recall Indian Cooperative has front paged a piece titled “It is official: Govt to revive Nafed” recently. The govt has decided to give an annual grant of Rs 30 crore for a period of 5 years to the Nafed to meet its financial obligations including salaries of employees and administrative expenses.
The govt has also resolved to give procurement contracts to the Nafed so that its earnings improve, underlined Kundariya.
The govt has also offered to stand as guarantor, informed Kundariya. Earlier, the lending banks have moved Debt Recovery Tribunal for recovery of their outstanding dues of around Rs 1700 crore.
Obviously, the Prime Minister has signaled that the activities of Nafed be continued and this is very reassuring for us. Even IFFCO and Kribhco do not measure up to Nafed when it comes to getting farmers’ a decent price for their produce, added Bijender.
CoOps are not State Agencies and the Govt has little or no control over its functioning.
As a policy, Govts should not never fund an ailing CoOp just to keep it alive or to ensure continued employment to the staff working in such CoOps.
In India, in the absence of a well thought out Exit Policy for ailing entities and those Chairmen / Directors who were responsible for the mess, the country has been burdened by infusion of public money that goes down the drain.
NAFED is incorrigible and no amount of Govt support will help it turn around. For the services Govt seeks/gets from NAFED, it is advisable to start a new entity that will take over many of its functions.
As for ensuring continued employment to the Staff who are/were not responsible for the ‘ mess ‘ , they be redeployed on compassionate grounds.