The future of the giant agri-cooperative federation NAFED hangs in balance as the Union Finance Ministry is believed to have rejected the proposal of granting Rs 1300 crore to the beleaguered cooperative.
The communication to this effect is yet to be sent to NAFED but Indian Cooperative sources have confirmed the veracity of this information. And with this the last ditch effort to save the cooperative federation comes crashing.
The NAFED Board which cancelled its last month’s meeting is scheduled to meet now on the 30th December and the Board members are expected to take a call on the emerging critical situation.
The NAFED which lost more than Rs 4000 crore in the tie-up business during the late Ajit Singh’s Chairmanship has been struggling hard to recover eversince. The present Board led by Chairman Bijender Singh has met the Ministry officials umpteen times seeking fund to put the cooperative back on the rails.
The interest on the bank loan alone runs into crores every month. The cooperative has been trying to repay some of them with little success.
Indian Cooperative has learnt that Sharad Pawar, the Union Agricultural Minister was in favour of giving NAFED a second chance after the present Board members pleaded with him for mercy. But such huge fund needs clearance from the Finance Ministry which did not find merit in the proposal and rejected it.
There are thousands of members associated with NAFED through State Level Marketing Federations, Apex Level Marketing Federations, State Level Tribal and Commodity Federations, Primary Marketing/ Processing Societies, NCCF & Other National Level Coop Organisations. And the GOI decision not to help out NAFED is sure to lead to a massive disappointment.
Last time when the NAFED Board decided to raise the share capital many members contacted Indian Cooperative to know if the investment would be worthwhile.
Once the crown of cooperatives the NAFED’s ignominious slide was quick and complete. Some unscrupulous elements made the late Chairman Ajit Singh believe that by entering into tie-up business the agri-cooperative could profit along with their personal aggrandizement.
Under the garb of expanding business, bylaws were violated and loot at the scale of thousands of crore was made. This virtually bled the only agri-cooperative of the country to death.The NAFED’s disappearance from the Indian Cooperative scene would certainly deal the country’s cooperative movement a terrible shock.