Co-op Week: IFFCO bestows Sahakarita Awards

Celebrating Co-operative Week, fertilizer cooperative titan IFFCO, bestowed Sahakarita Ratan Award and Sahkarita Bandhu award to Kartik Chandra Sarkar and S S Patil respectively in a glittering event in Gurugram on Sunday.

The IFFCO Sahakarita Ratna award was presented to Kartik Chandra Sarkar, who hails from Kolkata, West Bengal whereas IFFCO Sahakarita Bandhu award was presented to S S Patil, a veteran cooperator from Karnataka on the occasion of 30th Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial IFFCO Lecture organized at FMDI Auditorium, Gurugram.

Unnoticed and unsung so far, the awardees profusely thanked IFFCO for the recognition. A cheque of Rs 11 lakh was presented to each of them along with shawl and citation.

Kartik Chandra Sarkar, a cooperator from West Bengal said IFFCO played an important role in improving the lives of farmers. He thanked IFFCO for honoring him with this prestigious award. Patil, another awardee thanked IFFCO MD for his able leadership. Patil who was also recognized in 2007 by the Karnataka govt is associated with the cooperative movement since 57 years.

D P Tripathy, senior NCP leader and a versatile genius also gave Nehru Memorial Lecture on the occasion of IFFCO Co-op Week. Nehru is held as one of the architects of cooperative movement in the country and the massive network of co-op structure with ministries in each states that you see today is his contribution, informed a cooperator participating in the event to this correspondent.

Lauding IFFCO in general and its MD Dr U S Awasthi in particular Tripathy said IFFCO has bought laurels to the country by being number one in world co-operative monitor ranking. We Indians should thank IFFCO for saving the soil of the country, he said dramatically drawing huge applause from the audience.

Give his engaging talk DPT, as he is known touched spoke on the subject of “History and vision (dream)” and said a country which has no history has no future. He mentioned several scholars such as Plato to E H Carr to Aristotle to prove his points. “History can be written in many ways-nationalist, communistic or with religiosity but the one with humanism as it core it the best”, he underlined.

On his welcome speech IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi recounted those great men who had come to IFFCO podium on the occasion of Co-op Week in the past. ‘We encourage contemporary debate and discussion on the theme of co-operative so that IFFCO, its subsidiaries and partners could benefit.  He requested DPT to share his scholarly musings with the audience. Joint MD Rakesh Kapoor gave a detailed account of DPT’s achievements.

Last year IFFCO had honored Sahakar Bharati President and veteran cooperator from Gujarat Jyotindra Mehta with the IFFCO Sahakarita Ratna award and Ramesh Vaidya with the IFFCO Sahakarita Bandhu award.

The IFFCO Sahakarita Ratna & the Sahakarita Bandhu Awards are conferred on individual eminent cooperators who have rendered selfless service in the furtherance and development of the cooperative movement.

Tarun Bharagava compered the show efficiently.