Vamnicom: NCUI Prez removal makes cooperators livid

Cooperators are angry in the wake of Agricultural Ministry’s decision to do away with the role of NCUI Chairman in the affairs of Vamnicom-the leading Institute of Cooperative Education and Training in the country. “We are planning to wage a long-drawn protest”, said a few of them to Indian Cooperative on condition of anonymity.

It is clear from the move that the government is intent on running the affairs of Vamnicom in its own way even though NCUI is universally held as the nodal agency for cooperative education and training, cooperators spoke in unison.

The newly reconstituted Management Committee of Vamnicom has about eleven members with the Additional Secretary nominated as the Chairman-a position earlier held by NCUI President. There are about eleven members with inclusion of Biscomaun Chairman Sunil Kumar Singh in the list- a complete surprise.

As the current President of NCUI Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav is busy attending Ministers’ conference in Vietnam the senior Vice-President of NCUI, G H Amin reacted with dismay at the development.

Though Vamnicom gets govt funding but it was developed primarily by the NCUI, recounted Amin. The issue of cooperative training and educations rests with NCUI in the country as it controls several ICMs and RICMs. The exclusion of any elected person either President or Vice-President from the decision-making body is surprising, Amin underlined.

Explaining the role Vamnicom plays, Amin said those who go there for training from across the country are sent by NCUI only. It is after all cooperative training they get and doing so without the support of NCUI is not possible.

On the presence of the name of the Chief Executive of NCUI in the newly constituted team, Amin says a CE is an official not a cooperative leader. You need to have leaders to lend vision to the training and education programme.

Earlier also the Govt had made a move to curtail the power of NCUI President which was strongly resisted by the cooperators. Readers would recall that the Ministry had sent a letter three years ago in 2014 which reduced the NCUI’s President’s powers drastically. The Board of NCCT comprising of 21 members had rejected the proposal.

The move to remove NCUI President from Vamnicom had also been gaining strength over the years.