In the crucial meeting that took place on Wednesday in the agriculture ministry on the issue of future of Field Projects, the message that came loud and clear was the government would continue with the idea.
Indian Cooperative had earlier reported that some of the GC members of the apex body NCUI were not in favour of continuing with Field Projects and had openly talked about closing them down. But the meeting in which Central registrar and other top officials of the NCUI including Dr Dinesh participated ended with good news for the employees.
It was decided that project officers and other employees would get a consolidated monthly salary of Rs 25000 and Rs 18000 respectively. That would make up for the remaining 35% hike of the total 70% as decided earlier by the NCUI and reported in these columns.
The Central Registrar has reportedly said that there would not be any shortage of money so far as field projects and people associated with them are concerned. These are important projects doing a wonderful job, a source shared with Indian Cooperative.
Ashish Bhutani also talked of implementing other central schemes with the help of Field Officers. Readers would note that there are 42 Field Projects in which 120 people are working. Expenditures on these are close to Rs 4 crore annually. A few more crores would ease the pressure, said a source.
Earlier, the govt and the NCUI used to share the expenditures on 50:50 basis but the govt tightening its belt has resulted into a precarious situation. But in today’s meeting the government authorized the NCUI to take as much as needed from the Cooperative Education Fund and do the Projects efficiently.
The Cooperative Education Fund which has a corpus of Rs 75 crores receives roughly Rs 12 to 13 crore from the profit making cooperatives who have to pass on 1% of their profit in accordance with the MSCS Act 2002.