Agitated over the issue of Ministry’s diktat over having a second signatory from the Ministry for cheques drawn from Cooperative Education Fund, the Governing Council of the apex cooperative body NCUI has decided to first negotiate the matter with the Ministry and convince them of its futility.
Talking to Indian Cooperative NCUI President Chandrapal Singh Yadav was very clear-we intend to resolve it peacefully but if we fail we would have no option but to knock on the door of the court.
Referring to the resolution of the Governing Council on the issue Chandrapal added that the new amendment in the Rules is not in keeping with the spirit of the Act. “I have met the Minister explaining the futility of this amendment”, said Chandrapal.
NCUI President has also written a letter to the Union Minister comparing the original rule with the currently modified rule emanating from Section 63 (1) of the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act 2002.
The new amended rule states “In the Multi State Cooperative Societies Rules, 2002, in rule 25, in sub rule (3), after the words “a separate account” , the words “to be operated jointly by the Chief Executive of the NCUI and officer of the Central Govt not below the rank of Director, authorized by the Central govt, shall be inserted”.
Chandrapal argued that the ACT is very clear and it says that NCUI is the custodian of the Education Fund. He further said “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.
Yadav also argues that barring CE/DG and President of NCUI, all other members are nominees of the Central Govt. And also when the fund is being managed as per the directions of the said committee what is the need to add any words in the sub rule (3) of Rule no 25, he asked.
NCUI President felt that this amendment would hardly add to safety but would certainly be tedious and time consuming. He also reminded the Minister that the fund is being audited every year by AGCR, Statutory Auditors, Departmental Auditors and Internal Auditors.
On a question from Indian Cooperative regarding the next course of action, Chandra Pal said ”we would be going to court if negotiations fail. And I must tell you we would not be happy doing this,” he added.
Before winding up the story Indian Cooperative would like to express regrets to its readers for an inadvertence in the story done earlier. The fund caught up in a controversy is not Corpus Fund but Cooperative Education Fund which is 1% of the profit co-op bodies contribute to NCUI. It is roughly Rs 17-18 crore per anum. We regret the mistake.