The central govt has agreed to provide Uttarakhand with Rs 3,340 crore for executing an integrated co-operative development project in the state, about which Indian Cooperative wrote in detail under the heading “Co-op model of growth to rewrite fate of Uttarakhand”.
Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and the state’s Co-operative Minister Dhan Singh Rawat and NCDC Managing Director Sundeep Nayak recently met in Delhi to discuss the matter.
Chief Minister Rawat said implementing the project will greatly boost the agricultural economy and help check migrations from remote areas of the state. An integrated development model putting together all cooperatives in the state is in the works. The state govt has hired Synergy Consultant for the purpose which is busy preparing the Detailed Project Report.
NCDC is playing a major role in this even as surveys on an unheard of scale in each village and Panchayat of the state have been undertaken weighing up the strengths and weaknesses of each and every Primary Cooperative Society. Activities such as Goshthi, Sabha, meeting PACS officials, villagers and farmers are the order of the day.
This is a project involves everybody from Union Minister Radha Mohan, the state CM to PACS officials. The project seeks to unify almost all the economic activities of the state into an effective whole. These activities are farming, dairy, weaving, tourism and what not. It is basically an effort to achieve economies of scale. However, such an effort may call for professional services like the ones Amul of Gujarat specializes in.
The integrated cooperative development model envisages converting PACS offices into tourist lodges by building 5-6 self-contained rooms on their first floor-an idea likely to make each PACS rich in cash in times to come. After all, Uttarakhand is known for its scenic beauty and the villagers need to exploit this potential. The latest tourist fad “immersion in nature” means tourists going into remote villages and providing tour operators with a lot of work, said officials.
The state which had many ghost villages due to large scale migration for employment in the past would be hard to recognize in near future, claim NCDC officials. There are requests coming from various state for launching this kind of integrated cooperative development projects. Some such requests have come from Assam, MP and even Bihar.