Co-op Week celebrations kick off across country; Co-ops say its Our Day

Indian cooperatives-small as well as large; urban as well as rural; modern as well as traditional erupted into celebrations at the dawn of Cooperative Week on Thursday. “Its our day”, said many of them referring to the Week which begins on 14^th and ends on 20^th November.

Cooperative societies are celebrating the Week with full gusto across the country, debating and analysing their strengths and weaknesses. NCUI has an impressive line-up of events for each day of the Co-op Week. The theme of the week is “Role of Cooperatives in New India”.

Reports of celebrations across states are pouring in at Indian Cooperative desk since Thursday when Union Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar inaugurated the 66th All India Cooperative Week organized by the apex body of cooperatives NCUI in Delhi.

The theme of the week is “Role of Cooperatives in New India”.

The prestigious cooperative institute Vamnicom organized a function which was inaugurated Subhashrao Ramchandra Joshi, Director, Karad UCB, Karad. In his welcome address Dr K K Tripathy, Director, Vamnicom recalled the contributions of late Shri Vaikunth Bhai Mehta who emphasized the role of cooperatives in the development of the country, especially the rural sector.

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Govt. of Odisha, Dr. Arun Kumar Sahu hoisted the cooperative flag at FISHFED office, Bhubaneswar in the presence of Fishcopfed President T. Prasad Rao Dora.

IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi tweeted on the occasion and wrote, “Congratulations for the 66th National #Cooperative week. #Coops across the nation will celebrate this entire week by talking about success & importance of cooperatives for nation growth & development.

Coops empower people & builds communities for better world @icacoop”.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb also participated in an event and wrote on his Facebook wall, “Inaugurated & addressed the seminar on ‘Role of Co-operative in New India’ today on the week-long celebration of 66th National Co-operative Week 2019 organised by Co-operative Department & Tripura State Co-operative Union at Agartala Town Hall”.

“With almost 6 lakh co-operative societies mostly committed to the interests of the weaker-sections of society, India runs the largest cooperative movement & network that plays a key role in our economy, rural credit, fisheries, storage, labor, consumer, housing, fertilizer marketing etc”, Deb further wrote.

The Sikkim State Cooperative Union (SICUN) organized a program on the occasion at the Auditorium hall, SICUN which was inaugurated and chaired by Em Prasad Sharma, MLA, Namcheybong Constituency.

Uttarakhand based Udham Singh Nagar District Cooperative Bank organized an event and the Bank MD Manohar Singh Bhandari hoisted the cooperative flag. The bank also organized a seminar on the development of cooperatives.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma participated in the event organized in the PCU Auditorium at Lucknow along with Cooperative Minister Mukut Bihari Verma.

Reports of celebrations from southern states as well as Gujarat and Maharashtra have also come in a large number.