Ministry officials as well as ace cooperators of the country are displaying massive disdain for the idea of co-op training as NCUI and the Ministry having been playing cat and mouse. NCUI is denying fund to NCCT and in retaliation the Ministry denies fund to NCUI-making a mockery of co-op training in the country. Wow India!
And now since the election seasons have set in both NCUI as well as NCCT are sure to stew in their own juices till a new govt takes over.
Despite an administrative approval given by the Union Agriculture ministry in the 2018-19, NCUI has failed to get even a single penny from the govt for its training programs so far. The apex body waited till the 31st March-cutoff date of the last instalment but was greeted with a deafening silence from the other side.
“The Ministry has failed to disburse all the earlier instalments of the approved budget of 2018-19, let alone the last instalments”, said a Director level officer of NCUI on condition of anonymity.
Showing an official letter signed by Under Secretary Harsh Prakash and dated 08.11.2018 from the Ministry, the NCUI official read the content which said “I am directed to convey approval pf the Govt of India for Implementing Scheme for Agricultural Cooperation to promote Cooperative Education & Training during the year 2018 with the following components 1 Cooperative Education 2 Assistance to JCTCs.
Lauding the role of its Chief Executive N Satyanarayan for building bridges with the Ministry and securing a higher grant year after year in his tenure, the Director said that the Ministry officials, however, argue that when NCUI does not listen to it why should it give fund to NCUI, said the official listing three nagging points between NCUI and the Ministry.
First the ministry insisted that Corpus Fund be transferred to NCCT but on our insistence scaled it down to interest part, recalled the official. “But more than that is the issue of NCCT delink and ever since we went to court on the issue, the Ministry has been less than kind to the apex body”, he summarized.
The second nagging issue between Ministry and NCUI is the introduction of a ministry official as one of the signatories on cheques. Agitated over the issue, the Governing Council of the apex cooperative body decided to first negotiate the matter with the Ministry and convince them of its futility. But the matter remains unresolved so far.
NCUI claims that the ACT is very clear and it says that NCUI is the custodian of the Education Fund. “Rule 25 of the MSCS states that the fund would be managed by a committee comprising of President of NCUI as the Chairman, and Central registrar, Financial Advisor to the Dept of Agriculture, two representatives of multi state co-op societies to be nominated by the Central govt, DG (NCCT) and Director of VAMNICOM as the members”, they quote the rule.
The third issue that bedevils the relationship between the two, claimed the official is that of NCCT Secretary Mohan Mishra. Mishra being on the pay roll of NCUI and the Ministry wants it to release Mishra so that he gets seconded to NCCT. NCUI is sitting tight on the matter with Mishra’s future hanging in balance.
To resolve the issue Additional Secretary Mrs Vasudha Mishra called a meeting of the two warring parties-ministry officials and NCUI—as soon as she assumed her new responsibility but to no avail.
