Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants robust and viable co-operative organizations to take a lead in developing the areas around Statue of Unity in Gujarat by opening tourist resorts and guest houses, among other activities. This was revealed by Gujarat cooperator G H Amin.
Amin had gone to meet the Prime Minister last week at the latter’s Parliamentary office, when during an informal interaction, Modi revealed his desire. Talking to Indian Cooperative Amin said that the PM stands four squares behind the idea of developing the area into something out of the world.
Prime Minister is believed to have said that land is being given to cooperatives at a concessional rate and they can develop tourist resorts or guest houses on these pieces of land, Amin conveyed to Indian Cooperative.
Gujarat State Cooperative Bank, which is headed by Ajay Patel is believed to have already bought a piece of land for this purpose. The state co-op bank aims to build a guest house for cooperators visiting Statue of Unity, Amin said.
Not denying the initiative taken by Gujarat State Co-op Bank in the area, Ajay Patel gave phone number of his CEO to this correspondent to know the issue in detail. Sadly, the CEO Mr Pradip Vora was too busy to answer our queries.
In the meeting, the two leaders discussed that the number of visitors to Statue of Unity has surpassed that of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Against this backdrop, Prime Minister made a strong pitch for cooperatives investing in the area, underlined Amin.
Meeting the Prime Minister for 10 minutes, Amin also made use of the opportunity to talk about the issue of pending banking license for the COBI, of which he is the Chairman. “Prime Minister has assured me of all help and 
said that he would enquire about the status of the matter”, said a satisfied Amin.
Amin also said that due to the undergoing exercise of amending the banking regulation Act which envisions a closer supervision of co-op banks by the RBI, the matter of COBI licence may take a while.
COBI is the apex body of all banks-co-op banks, UCBs, Land Mortgage, etc. While Amin is its Chairman, other Board of Directors include Chandra Pal Singh, V R Patel, Bijender Singh, KS Devegowda, H K Patil, Shivsadan Nayar, among others.
The lack of license for the Cooperative Bank of India (COBI) has somehow throttled the growth of this apex body. Though Amin and other leaders have met everybody including the Prime Minister on the issue, they have not been lucky so far.
“I am not the one to accept defeat and would make a renewed attempt to gain the licence”, said Amin to Indian Cooperative on the phone.
