In a welcome move the Union Cooperation Ministry has departed from the tradition to extol the virtues of successful cooperatives of the country. In quick succession the Ministry first tweeted about the leading UCB- Saraswat Cooperative Bank and numero uno among labour co-ops in the country– ULCCS. A few days later, the Ministry tweeted on the achievements of IFFCO, another co-op titan in the field of fertiliser.
Lauding Saraswat Bank the Ministry tweeted in Hindi with the title “Contributions of cooperative banks in the country’s economy: Saraswat Sahakari Bank is one of the largest urban co-operative banks in the country. This bank is spread across 6 states Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. By March 2022, the total business of this cooperative bank was more than 71 thousand crores.”
The Ministry also posted the achievements of the Bank such as its turnover, branches, number of ATMs and its finding a place in Forbes ranking.
In one of its tweets, IFFCO also became a part of Ministry’s attention. Tweeting under the title “Prosperity through cooperation”, Ministry tweeted “IFFCO registers record growth. IFFCO, one of the national cooperative institutions, recorded a record profit of Rs 3,053 crore in the financial year 2022-23, increasing by 62 percent.”
On ULCCS, the Ministry’s tweet reads “Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society of Kerala is the largest Labour Cooperative Society of Asia. This Cooperative Society is involved in Infrastructure Development and Management Work. As one of the oldest Labour Cooperative, ULCCS aims to create Sustainable Societies.”
The Ministry tweets also lists that ULCCS has 13000 as its members, it has achieved success in 7500 projects, and it is owned and managed by members only. The ministry adds that it is the only primary co-operative which is a member of international co-op body ICA.
Reacting to the development NCUI President Dileep Sanghani said that this is due to the fact that a co-operator is heading the Ministry, hinting at the cooperative roots of the Union Minister Amit Shah who has been active not only at the PACS level but also at DCCBs and State Co-op Bank’s levels in the past.
It is good that the Union Minister of Cooperation has begun to acknowledge performing co-operatives of the country and lauding them on the social media said Sanghani referring to the Ministry’s highlights of two co-ops through tweets which excel in the urban cooperative banking sector and in the labour cooperative sector.
It is true that Union Minister Amit Shah has been openly appreciating the good works of co-ops soon after he took over. He not only attended the inauguration of Kribhco’s ethanol plant but also lauded its new initiative in the field.
Similarly, Shah launched the Nano DAP of IFFCO and said that as the Cooperation Minister he felt proud of the fact that co-ops produce a major share of fertilizer in the country with IFFCO alone producing 90 lakh metric tonnes of urea in the country.