Fascinating stories on NCCE an arm of the apex cooperative body NCUI partnering with the govt of India in preparing an army of trained cooperators who would manage the affairs of multi-purpose District Co-op Societies are grabbing the media headlines these days.
Known as Village Level Entrepreneurs VLEs, these trained co-operators are being churned out every month from the headquarters of NCUI in Delhi. NCCE is also getting handsome fees for the same, informs NCUI Chief Executive N Satyanarayan.
Beginning this November, in the last two months we have already conducted four programs for training 200 VLEs and earned about Rs 12 lakh, said V K Dubey who heads the educational arm known as NCCE. Thanking the CE for encouraging the team and giving a free hand Dubey said “days are not away when we would earn in crores.”
Correcting him promptly, CE Satayanarayan said ”our aim is not to make profit but we are happy as this process has ignited a co-op movement which remains quiet and effective and yet not embroiled in any controversy. Without saying it in too many words words, he was hinting at NCCT which does little in terms of training cooperator but grabs the media headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The whole thing started with an MoU with NCUI signing a Memorandum of Understanding with CSC-Ë-Governance India Services to conduct Management Development Program on “Cooperative Management” for Village Level Entrepreneurs.
Common Service Centers an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & IT are the access points for delivery of various electronic services to villages in India, thereby contributing to a digitally and financially inclusive society.
Showing a Hindi manual of 175 pages made for the VLEs, NCCE chief said that these would be translated later into all the regional languages for the benefit of non-Hindi speaking cooperators. English version would hit the stand in the next couple of days, he added.
The Hindi belt including the states of UP, Haryana and Punjab have been covered and next we aim to rope in participants from Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Gujarat, said Dubey.
Dubey also informed that 109 Junior Co-operative Training Centres spread across states and managed by state co-op unions would be made part of the exercise. Our trained faculty members would conduct training of VLEs at these centers.
Dubey was also appreciative of the smoothness of the process. “First the dates are decided and next the number of trainees are given to us after which we raise the bill charging Rs 8500 per participants. The fees come before the actual training starts,” he stated.
At present, there are about 2.75 lakh of these centers all over the country covering all Gram Panchayats. CSC e-Governance Services India is a Special Purpose Vehicle (CSC SPV) incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, to monitor the implementation of the Common Service Centers Scheme.
The key stakeholders of the CSC scheme are the Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) who are known as CSC operators.
Now, these VLEs are being mobilized into forming multi-purpose cooperative societies. 300 primary multi-purpose cooperative societies have already been registered all over the country (about 400 more are in the pipeline) under the CSC Scheme.
Programs of 18 ministries are being implemented through these VLEs, said the CE. One of our main aims is to digitalize these programs. VLEs are also trained for this purpose, he added.