More than three hundred fifty Sahakar Bharati karyakarta (workers) assembled in the Town Hall of Motihari – a northern district of Bihar with an aim to ignite the co-operative movement in the state. And to cheer them on, came Sahakar Bharati President Jyotindrabhai Mehta from Gujarat.
Since Motihari is the home-district of Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh he could not have missed it. “He inaugurated the event; addressed us and had left just now”, said Mehta on the phone, in the evening of the first day of the 2 day event beginning Saturday.
In his speech the Union Minister lauded the role being played by Sahakar Bharati and wanted other co-ops to emulate it. Sahakar Bharati President Mehta said co-operative has to play a greater role in the economic affairs of the state.
In order to strengthen our organization we need to have more dedicated workers in the state, said Mehta later
State Co-op Minister Rana Randhir Singh was also there in the conference. The two-day event will have five sessions: two on Saturday and the remaining three on Sunday.
Mehta also felt that the State of Bihar needs to claim its pre-eminent position so far as the cooperative movement is concerned. Though the movement was never strong in the state, Bihar contributed some nationally known cooperators.
Every year Sahakar Bharati holds state conferences across states. Beginning with Kerala, the cooperative conferences of eight states have been held so far. Bihar is the ninth. The top leaders of Sahakar Bharati- Mehta, Marathe, Uday Joshi and some others are mainly instrumental in organizing these conferences.
There were conferences in Chhattisgarh and Delhi in August. Organizational elections also take place on these occasions but primarily future programmes for the next year are discussed, say Sahakar Bharati sources.