Putting his old relation to good use, NCUI President Dileep Sanghani took a delegation of who’s who of the country’s co-op movement to meet the newly appointed Cooperative Minister Amit Shah, meeting whom otherwise is difficult, given his preoccupations with the ministry of interior of the country.
Cooperators met the Minister at his residence for more than half an hour and despite being a courtesy call, discussed several issues pertaining to the cooperative movement. Those who accompanied Sanghani included BS Nakkai, IFFCO Chairman, Dr Bijender Singh, Chairman, NAFED, Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, Chairman, KRIBHCO, Dr US Awasthi, MD, IFFCO, Yogendra Kumar, Marketing Director, IFFCO, Ved Prakash, Director, NCUI.
Amit Shah, who is not new to the co-operative sector, assured the heavyweights of the cooperatives world that the govt would lend all help and remove any bottleneck falling in the way of co-op growth. Shah also said the PACS that have the required infrastructure would get all the benefits available to FPOs, said Sanghani to Indian Cooperative quoting the Minister.
Sanghani also said that the Minister wanted big cooperatives like IFFCO, Kribhco etc to take up seed production on a massive scale. There are about 55000 hectares of idle land and a part of it, about 38000 hectares, could be spared by the govt for seed production.
Shah assured co-op leaders of land and loans along with the govt handholding for the project, stressing the urgent need to produce quality seeds for the farmers. “The Minister was clear, he wanted co-operatives and not the companies to take lead in the matter”, said Sanghani.
“On behalf of Indian cooperative movement, I invited the Minister to a proposed grand coo-operative conclave
consisting of cooperators from all the levels- tehsils to zila to state to nation. This will help him know the cooperative people as well as give the co-operators a chance to know their Minister”, said Sanghani.
“Amitbhai has given his assent to the idea and we have started planning for the same. Date would be conveyed to you once the basic preparations are done with, said Sanghani adding that while NCUI would prepare the list of those active in different sectors of co-op business across states, IFFCO will take care of its logistics.”
The event, which is expected to host more than 2500 co-operators, would mostly be held in the Indraprastha Indoor Stadium, informed Sanghani. Sanghani also informed that while on Saturday he met Amit Shah, on Friday he along with his team met the three newly appointed ministers including B L Verma and Parshottam Rupala. We congratulated them and wished them good luck in their new tenures, said Sanghani.
