The meeting of the National Level Committee for drafting the new National Cooperative Policy document will be held on 26th August 2023 at Mumbai, Maharashtra. The meeting has been convened under the chairmanship of former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu. The all-47 members in the committee have been invited for the meeting.
Sources said, the draft of the National Cooperative Policy is almost ready and it is in its final leg. In this meeting, the committee will discuss submitting it to the Union Ministry of Cooperation.
PTI quotes Prabhu saying “the policy has the potential to change the socio-economic dimension of India, substantially increasing the share of cooperatives in the total GDP. The idea behind the policy is to promote a cooperative-based economic development model backed by a legal and institutional framework.”
The draft offers the roadmap for the next 25 years i.e. from 2024-2047 for the cooperative sector.
Several other apex bodies to be proposed in the draft policy include Development Financial Institution, National Cooperative University, Centre for Excellence, National Cooperative Recruitment Board, National Cooperative Audit & Accounting Board, National Export Multi State Cooperative Society, National Cooperative Tribunal and others.
Meanwhile, the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing recommended that the New National Cooperation Policy, which is a cherished vision of the Ministry, be finalized and adopted at the earliest.
“The Committee notes that the Ministry of Cooperation is in the process of formulating a New National Cooperation Policy to realize the vision of ‘Sahakar se Samriddhi’, promoting the cooperative based economic development model, strengthening the cooperative movement in the country and deepening its reach up to the grassroots.
Readers would recall that during the introduction of the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in Lok Sabha, Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said that the new National Cooperative Policy would come before Diwali.
A couple of months ago, the NCP Draft Committee met Shah in his office and gave a presentation before the finalization of the draft report of NCP. Prabhu led the team.
The NCP drafting committee members who met Shah included NCUI President Dileep Sanghani, RBI Central Board Director Satish Marathe, NAFCUB Chairman Jyotindra Mehta, UP Principal Secretary Cooperation B L Meena, Prakash Naiknavare, MD of NFCSF, Dr C Pichai, Dr Umakant Das from IRMA and Dr Hema Yadav, Director Vamnicom and some others.