Co-op connection: Pranabda inaugurated Co-op Congress & IFFCO’s plant

Co-operators across the party lines have paid tributes to former President Pranab Mukherjee on his demise and remembered the role he played in strengthening the cooperative movement in the country.

As the President of India, Pranabda inaugurated the 16th Indian Cooperative Congress organised by National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) in the capital in the year 2013. He is also the one who took pains to inaugurate IFFCO’s the largest sulphuric acid plant of the world with the King of Jordan in Jordan’s capital city of Amman in 2015.

While inaugurating the cattle-feed plant of Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union (Amul Dairy), President Pranab Mukherjee said the ‘Amul model’ is worthy of emulation in other agricultural areas as well.

If NCUI President Dr Chandrapal Singh Yadav posted an old picture with Pranabda on Facebook, IFFCO team paid floral tributes to the former President at his residence in the national capital on Tuesday.

“Floral tributes were paid on behalf of 36000 cooperatives & #IFFCO to a great statesman & scholar, Bharat Ratna Former President of India Sh. #PranabMukherjee ji @CitiznMukherjee at his residence. May god rest his soul in peace, wrote IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi on Twitter.

On Tuesday morning, the mortal remains of Mukherjee were taken to his residence.

Mukherjee, 84, passed away on Monday at the Army Hospital Research and Referral Hospital] where he was admitted earlier this month and had undergone surgery for the removal of a clot in his brain.

Inaugurating the 16th Indian Cooperative Congress Shri Pranab Mukherjee praised the contributions made by the Cooperative sector towards the transformation of the rural economy and emphasized that the role of the cooperatives has increased many fold in the current context than it was ever before.

It bears recall that IFFCO had taken up 20 villages under the President’s Smart Village Scheme. Smart Gram is an initiative launched by the former President Pranab Mukherjee with an aim to develop 100 such villages in the country. A ‘smart gram’ means a self-sufficient village. The physical and social infrastructure of the smart gram goes for complete overhaul leading to improvement in governance, services and economic opportunities.

Inaugurating the cattle-feed plant of Amul Dairy, Pranab Mukherjee said the Amul experiment has brought about a socio-economic revolution in rural India. It is the responsibility of the current generation of farmer leaders, professionals and stakeholders to expand this experiment so as to benefit millions of farmers across the country, the President had said.

Indian Cooperative joins others in saying goodbye to a leader who walked tall all his life.