Delhi headquartered National Cooperative Development Corporation’s regional office at Chennai organized a regional award function for successful cooperatives of Tamil Nadu in which several leaders participated.
The function was attended by Minister of Cooperation Sellur K. Raju, Minister of Social Welfare V. Saroja, Registrar of Cooperative Societies Commissioner, Veteran Cooperator and President of Indian Cooperative Network for Women Nandini Azad and other distinguished guests.
In a Facebook post NCDC official account said “Congratulations RO NCDC at Chennai for hugely successful NCDC Regional Awards for Excellence function on 21 Feb award function in presence of 2 ministers 1 secretary 1 commissioner RCS and other senior officials of departments and primary society presidents 8 media experts & TV”.
The awards for cooperative excellence with cash prize of Rs 25,000 and cooperative merit with cash prize of Rs 20,000 with certificate of recognition were instituted by the National Cooperative Development Corporation to recognise the role played by cooperatives and to promote the spirit of competition among the grass-roots level cooperatives.
The cash awards under the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Society (PACS) and prominent sector categories were received by presidents and secretaries of Vanavasi PACS, Salem; Muhilanvilai PACS, Kanniyakumari; Educational and Electricity Generation & Distribution Cooperative Thrift & Credit Society, Theni; 
Pallipalayam Farmers Service Cooperative Society, Namakkal and SAGOSERVE, Salem.
The Minister for Social Welfare V. Saroja presented the cash awards to the presidents and secretaries of Kancheepuram Ladies Cooperative Society, Velapadi Women’s Tailoring Society, Vellore and Nilgiris District Women Tailoring Society.
Addressing the conference, Minister for Cooperation Sellur K. Raju said cooperatives in the State have registered growth because of initiatives taken by the government.
President of Indian Cooperative Network for Women and vice-chairperson of Global Gender Equality Committee Nandini Azad said, “The government has to take initiatives to increase the representation for women at all levels of cooperatives. She further said the membership of women in cooperatives is high but their representation on Boards is less than 10%.
Ms Azad statement were flashed by the daily the Hindu prominently along with her photographs. Early, this month Nandini Azad, president of the Indian Co-operative Network for Women (ICNW) become the vice-chairperson of the ICA Global Gender Equality Committee.
“Representatives from cooperatives in the State have won five international elections in the past three months because of the hard-working members of cooperatives. “I cannot forget what the State has given us. The positive environment has greatly facilitated the growth of cooperatives in the State,” said Ms. Azad.
