The Kribhco Board members were excited to find Union Minister Amit Shah among them when the Minister came calling to its headquarters Friday noon. “It was a great experience”, said Kribhco Chairman Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav to the Indian Cooperative.
Sources said Shah patiently sat through the meeting watching the presentations and the film based on Kribhco’s performance over the years. “He appreciated our work”, said Yadav who also heads the co-op movement of Asia Pacific countries.
While lauding Kribhco for its stellar performance, Amit Shah, a task master to the core said that Kribhco should also help weaker co-operatives to grow. “Its good that you are doing well but you should also focus on your poor cousins so that the co-operative movement gets strengthened at the grassroots level,”, said a Kribhco Director quoting the Union Minister.
Shah tasked Kribhco with helping around a thousand primary co-operatives through its field offices across the country. These co-ops are being strengthened by the government through various schemes and you have to get them connected to the right kind of the business model, Shah was quoted saying.
Shah asked Kribhco to adopt about a 1000 weaker cooperative societies and form about 200 new co-operatives every year so that the movement gets strengthened from the bottom. These are to be connected to the various schemes launched in recent times by the Union Ministry of Cooperation. “ In a way Kribhco has been asked to handhold 1200 co-op societies year after year”, said a Director to the Indian Cooperative.
Shah is believed to have said that Kribhco has the necessary wherewithal to help these cooperatives learn the tricks of becoming a successful business entity. Kribhco’s field offices and officers managing them have to reach out to such co-ops by identifying them.
Talking to the Indian Cooperative soon after the Minister had left Kribhco office, Chandra Pal said “Amit Shah is of firm opinion that the co-op movement cannot succeed unless it is strengthened at the grassroots level. He has inspired all of us to look beyond Kribhco and work for the co-op movement in general, which is highly appreciable”, added Chandra Pal.
“We have to study the situation and formulate a strategy to make it happen”, said Chandra Pal while stressing that the idea of Shah is indeed noble. Shah spent close to two hours at the Kribhco office.
Some of the Board members of Kribhco also put forth their views which were heard with rapt attention by the minister.