In the wake of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar attending a high-voltage co-op event in Gurugram last week, the Governor of the state Prof Kaptan Singh Solanki stressed on the need of strengthening cooperatives in Haryana in his budgetary address to the state Assembly.
Addressing the State Budget Session the other day in Chandigarh, Haryana Governor Prof. Kaptan Singh Solanki announced that Cooperative Election Authority would be established in the state to be responsible for overseeing the election process in cooperative bodies, media reports say.
Fair elections to the co-op bodies are the first step towards strengthening the system, opine co-op experts.
It bears recall that as the Governor’s address is prepared by the govt, it obviously reflected the happenings of the Sahakar Bharati meeting held recently in the state, where a general consensus on strengthening the co-operative movement in the states had emerged. The Chief Minister himself wondered why the co-op movement is not strong in north India.
In his speech in the Haryana Assembly, the governor said his government is committed to strengthening the cooperative sector to help people realize their full potential.
Prof. Kaptan Singh Solanki, however listed the recent achievements in the cooperative sector. The governor said cooperative banks had given loans of Rs Rs 5,414.01 crore to the farmers up to January, 2018. Not only that, 12.37 lakh Kisan Credit Cards have been issued to the farmers up to December, 2017.
Cooperatives in the dairy sector in the state have been successful in procuring 5.5 lakh litre of milk per day over the last few months. Under the ‘Mukhya Mantri Dugdh Utpadak Protsahan Yojana, the state government provided additional financial help to milk pourers of Cooperative Milk Societies, the governor remarked.
Those watching the cooperative scene in the state say the governor’s speech with its notable emphasis on the cooperative sector expresses the state government’s resolve to involve cooperatives in a big way in the economic development of the state.
In the meeting last week Khattar lamented the lack of growth of co-operatives in the region compared to southern and western India. He also mentioned the statistics and vowed to strengthen the movement. He sought the help of Sahakar Bharati in achieving this goal. Haryana’s agriculture and cooperation ministers had also attended the meeting.