Everybody including Mohan Bhai Kundariya warmed up to the presence of Prof. Vaidyanathan and said not a day passes when his name and VCR report are not mentioned during parliamentary sessions. The occasion was the National Colloquium on Strengthening of Cooperative Training and Education convened last week at the Dr. V. Kurein Conference Hall of NICM, Chennai. It was organized by NCCT, Delhi.
The colloquium 3rd in the series was inaugurated by Kundarijya and was presided over by Chandrapal Singh Yadav, NCUI President. The highlight of the show was presence of legendary Prof A Vaidyanathan, Chairman Task Force for Revival of Rural Cooperative Credit.
Other dignitaries included Bojjala Gopala Krishna Reddy, Minister of Environment and Forest Science and Technology and Cooperation, AP; Dr. Jaya Arunachalam, President Working Women’s Forum (India), Mrs Irina Garg, DG Ch. Charan Singh National Institute of Agricultural Marketing, Jaipur and Mrs Shikha DGM, NABARD, beside others.
Speaking on the occasion Kundariya said training institutes must provide training on the policies and schemes of Central and State Governments like Agricultural Insurance Scheme, issues related to MSCP and training for those associated with Agricultural and Cooperative sector.
In this context he mentioned Prime Minister’s initiative and said under his chairmanship a meeting was held which was attended by all the State Ministers of Agriculture, various agricultural organizations, top bureaucrats as well as social organizations to decide on the modalities of crop insurance.
In his presidential address Chandra Pal Singh highlighted that training Institutes are facing acute problems of infrastructure facilities, financial crunch, lack of adequate human resource etc. Due to these handicaps training units are unable to perform as desired, Yadav added.
Diploma given by the co-op training institutes needs govt recognition for which the Minister will have to take initiative; Let us invite the cooperative ministers from the States and work out a solution.
Prof. A. Vaidyanathan, Chairman, Task Force Revival of Rural Cooperative Credit institutions, Govt. of India in his key note address gave his review of the Task Force Committee on Revival of the short term credit institutions. While praising the training institutes and their role in enhancing the capabilities of the cooperative institutions associated with deployment of rural credit, he made a special remark on the important components of Task Force Committee in which cooperative training is an important tool to bring radical reforms in the cooperative sector. He urged the policy makers like NABARD and Govt. to proactively work for changing the work environment to make cooperatives professional organizations.
The Secretary, NCCT Mohan Kumar Mishra in his welcome address highlighted the importance of colloquium and especially its role in professionalizing the cooperative organizations and the training modules in the country. Bojjala Gopala Krishna Reddy, AP minister lauded the role being played by NCCT at National level.
Jaya Arunachalam, President WWF spoke about the contributions made by woman cooperatives and Mrs Irina Garg stressed on understanding the purpose of training. Mrs Shikha DGM, NABARD said Nabard has created C-PEC at BIRD following suggestions of the A. Vidayanthan Committee.
The Chief Guest felicitated the best performing RICMs/ICMs through awards and also distributed trophies for NICM’s Mega events like M-Gala, SPOGA, Culfest and HDCM overall trophy to MBA students & HDCM participants.
Director General, NCCT Dr. Dinesh presented a summary of all the events and moved a vote thanks.
Interesting report. Recently, I read a report that more than 50% of all cooperatives, especially credit cooperatives, are financially in bad shape and their ability to serve the rural sector has also declined considerably. The problems faced by cooperatives is not just lack of adequate training or training facilities but the lack of proper governance. Cooperatives had become the grazing grounds for local politicians and a platform to seek political positions such as members of legislative assemblies or ministers. Why cooperative training institutions have not been able to address these problems effectively? Did the subject seminar discuss the sorry state of affairs in India’s cooperatives and ways to remedy these?
National Colloquium has emerged a soul searching event by Cooperation Training Institute ( CTI) from all over India. All CTIs discussed various issues pertaining to cooperative education and training for two days. It was path breaking event which pivot around transforming cooperative education and training by providing good infrastructure, aligning delivery and content to suit the clientele need and be responsive to the cooperative movement. This was third event and it has been grand and successful. I thanks to chieftain of NCCT for such event.