Union Agriculture Minister, Radha Mohan Singh said that cooperative leadership and training are essential for stable economy and inclusive development in the present age of globalisation when the Indian economy is passing through an era of competitiveness. He was speaking at a function organised in New Delhi today, titled ’National Conference on Strengthening of Cooperative Education and Training’. Efficient management of human resources are the bedrocks for the development of cooperatives. For this, the training training programmes of cooperatives have to be dove-tailed to the hour of the day, he said.
Government have received proposals for opening cooperative management institutes from North Eastern Region like Sikkim, Mizoram, Tripura and states of Chattisgarh and Jharkhand, he said. Union Agriculture Minister mentioned that Government is keen to strenthen cooperative education and training in these states and all efforts will be made to provide sufficient funds and other resources in this regard. Singh said that in North East region, Government is implementing cooperative programme through NCUI. NCUI have established 8 field projects in North Eastern region which include Aizawl (Mizoram), Thoubal and Imphal (Manipur), Magalbara (Sikkim, Shillong(Meghalaya), Kohima(Nagaland), Morigaon and Jorhat (Assam).
Shri Singh said that National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) provides encouragement and financial assistance to cooperatives from primary level to national level and also provides them with technical guidance including computerisation skills. So far, NCDC have sanctioned Rs 269.15 cr to 352 cooperative committees/banks and have released Rs 202.15 cr. He said that NCDC implements ICDP (Integrated Cooperative Development Projects) in selected districts. NCDC released Rs 405.70 cr for 19 projects in Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. NCDC have released a total amount of Rs 3126.23 cr to least developed states as against sanctioned amount of Rs 5535.05 cr.
Singh said that NABARD is playing an important role as an advisor to provide core banking solution to cooperative banks. NABARD also gives technical/technological infrasture and Human Resources training to state and district level cooperative banks. Recently, Government have decided to provide Rs 23.75 cr as special package to 23 district cooperative banks (16 from Uttar Pradesh) to revive them.entioning Cooperative movement of India as World’s largest one, Shri Singh said that there are about 5.89 lakh cooperative committees spread across from village to national level. These Committees have a membership of 25 crore people covering 97% villages and 71% total rural families. Agriculture cooperative credit contributes 16.9%, fertiliser production 29%, weaver cooperatives 54% and sugar production 40% towards the Indian economy. Mentioning Dairy cooperatives, Singh complimented Amul model of Gujarat and said that it has played an important role.