Modi govt ended discrimination against co-op; Sanghani at AGM

Updating members on various initiatives taken by the apex co-op body NCUI in recent times during the AGM held in Delhi on Friday, its President Dileep Sanghani exhorted members to set up co-ops in their respective areas especially in sectors hitherto untouched by the co-op movement.

The AGM was held at a full house where delegates had come from various parts of the country. Barring a few, the majority of Governing Council members were present on the dais on this occasion.

“NCUI holds a similar view as that of the Union Cooperation Minister on the issue of opening a cooperative in every village of the country. For this we need to have a strong will power and a deeper realization of the mantra “Sahakar Se Samriddhi” beyond sloganeering, underlined the President.

Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ending discrimination against cooperative, Sanghani said the Modi govt made a provision of Rs 900 crores for cooperatives in this year’s budget, reduced surcharge from 12% to 7%, and MAT has been reduced from 18.5% to 15%. Due to all these steps, the neglect of cooperatives has ended, and they have been provided a level playing field compared to other enterprises, he stated.

Due to his immense faith in the co-op movement, the Prime Minister created a separate Ministry of Cooperation under the dynamic leadership of Shri Amit Shah. We are 8.5 lakhs and the sector has made rapid progress in recent times, stressed the President.

Sanghani also touched on various initiatives of the new Ministry and mentioned digitalization of PACS, the upcoming new byelaws for effective functioning of them, formation of the 47-member Panel for new National Cooperative Policy, move to amend the MSCS Act to make it more relevant, among others.

On the issue of NCCT, Sanghani requested the govt to make it a part of NCUI as was the case before 2018. “The situation demands that NCCT should be linked with NCUI so that cooperative education and training through an umbrella organization of NCUI can help in development of the cooperatives in accordance with the government’s objective of ‘Prosperity through Cooperation’, he stressed.

Another issue where he differed with the govt was the management of the Cooperative Education Fund. “We opposed this provision in the MSCS Act, and I wrote to Shri Amit Shah, we are hopeful that the Government will listen to our suggestions when the Amendment Bill is passed in the Parliament so that the autonomy of cooperatives is maintained”, he underlined.

In his presidential speech Sanghani also listed the success of NCUI Haat, formation of the Cooperative Entrepreneurship Development Cell (CEDC), MoUs with reputed organizations like German Development Corporation, Rain Matter Foundation, Art of Living, HIV/AIDS Alliance, National Association of Street Vendors of India, etc. This is to help the deprived sections of society empowered through the medium of cooperatives, he added.

On Field projects, Sanghani said the 34 cooperative education field projects of NCUI have been doing very good work in rural areas by connecting people through cooperatives for starting income-generating activities. I feel there is a need to expand the number of these projects, and their number should be increased to 100.

He also mentioned NCUI’s role in the onboarding of cooperatives on GeM portal. “Till date, 589 cooperatives have been found eligible to be considered for onboarding on GeM portal. A joint NCUI-GeM task force has been constituted for this purpose”, he informed.

Several delegates also spoke on this occasion including R P Baghel from Rajasthan, M L Chongle from Kolhapur, Chandrasekhar Singh from Balia, M S Jai Kumar from Tumkur, Gurunath Jayantikar from Karnataka, delegates from West Bengal and Odisha.

Bijender Singh, Vice President of NCUI proposed a vote of thanks.