The 69th All India Co-operation Week Program was held at Ahmedabad with fanfare in the presence of Gujarat State Cooperative Union Chairman G H Amin and Chairman of Ahmedabad District Co-operative Union and Director of State Co-operative Union Dashrathbhai Patel, among others.
Saluting the seven-coloured Co-operative flag and lighting the lamp, Amin said that the All India Co-operative Week is being celebrated throughout the country from November 14 to November 20, with the aim of discussing co-operatives, problems and challenges of co-operatives and providing a platform for contemplating about the co-operative sector with the aim to make efforts to involve more and more people in cooperative activities at taluka and village levels
Giving details about the celebration of Cooperative day at the International level Amin said co-ops are 200 years old in the world, while in our country it has been there for the last 118 years. It plays an important role in the economic and social upliftment of the poor, labour and marginalized people in 122 different countries of the world in various fields, he added.
Talking of Gujarat experiences, Amin said about 1.65 lakh people are affiliated with more than 85000 cooperative societies in the state. The Co-operative sector plays a pivotal role in the Indian economy and said rural credit, distribution of agricultural equipment, storage, fertilizer, fisheries, labour cooperatives and women’s cooperatives have made an important contribution to improving the economic conditions of poor people.
Amin said “On the occasion of Azadi’s Amrit Mahotsav, Prime Minister Shri Narendrabhai has created the Ministry of Cooperation and given the slogan of prosperity through cooperation (Sahakar Se Samriddhi). Its captaincy has been entrusted to Amitbhai Shah. Planning is being done so that the economic structure of the village runs on a cooperative basis and the cooperative activity gets strengthened.”
“It is planned to set up a multipurpose cooperative society in every village. The society will do things like credit, consumer services, catering to the needs of farmers etc. in the village. A budget has also been allotted for computerization of every society. Because the Government aspires that just like the private sector works in a techno-savvy way, co-operative organizations should also work by adopting modern technologies”, stated Amin on the occasion. Amin thanked Shah for onboarding the co-op on the GeM Portal.
Ahmedabad District’s Cooperative Union Chairman Dashrathbhai Patel said that “Co-operatives are the best organizations to achieve collective progress and development, especially for the economically weaker, middle and poor sections of society’’. The employees of the co-operative union are required to reach out to various cooperatives in the villages and make efforts to get more people to join the co-operative movement.
During the closing ceremony, Executive Officer of the Gujarat State Cooperative Union, Dr. Rajendra Trivedi said “All India Cooperation Week is celebrated for seven days keeping in mind various nominated themes. This is the week to brainstorm about how cooperatives can grow and benefit the masses of people.
