Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh has tried to make use of the new found cooperative relation that developed between him and Lalu Prasad in Patna cooperative conference to seek the latter’s support in furthering the cause of cooperative training.
Speaking on the occasion of the cooperative conference in Patna recently Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said he is ready to set up a state of the art cooperative training institute in Bihar if the state government agrees to grant 5 acres of land.
Turning towards RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yasav and two ministers of the state Alok Mehta and Awadesh Singh who were on the dais, he called upon them to provide land for the purpose in the year of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Mahtama Gandhi.
“I would help set up the best cooperative training institute in the country in Champaran in Bihar on the occasion of Gandhi’s centenary year. It was Champaran where he began his political experiment for the first time in India and it would be a fitting tribute to the great leader”, Singh said.
Before the state ministers could react, the man with the largest number of MLAs in the Bihar Assembly Lalu Prasad Yadav said “yes we are ready to give you land ; you please go ahead with your plan.”
Idea to set up a cooperative training institute in Champaran has long been shaping up in NCUI for some time as earlier its President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav wrote a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar requesting him to make the needed land available to the apex body.
Giving details of the plan NCUI Chief Executive Dr Dinesh said Bihar has a huge population and the existing cooperative training infrastructure could not meet the needs.
If Lalu Prasad’s promise would translate into action is not yet known, union minister’s statement brought local cooperators cheer.