In a rather grand ceremony held in Nehru Place in Delhi on Wednesday,NACOF was born. It is a federation of agri cooperative and declares tough competition both to Nafed and nccf.
The occasion was graced by leading cooperators, Member of Parliament and a Union Minister. Srikant Jena ,the fertilizer minister and Sandip Dixit ,Member of Parliament from East Delhi also came despite House being in session.Managing Director of Fishcofed Mr B K Mishra,MD of Labour cooperatives R M Pandey and a host of leaders were present on the occasion.
Talking on the occasion Sri Ramekbal Singh, the Chairman of Nacof said that the cooperatives have to reach to farmers so that he gets fruit of his labour. Nacof will try to procure, store and sell food grains directly from the farmers and will be of big help to them.
Srikant Jena ,the state minister for fertilizer said that cooperatives are doing good work since last 60 years and he has come to attend this function to understand cooperatives closely. Cooperatives have long way to go and we have to achieve the dream of Jawahar Lal Nehru who wanted to take cooperatives to the remotest villages.
Talking about the government subsidies Sri Jena said that about Rs one lakh crore is given towards it yet the result is not spectecular. Fertilizer component is only 20 per cent of farming output, rest is seed, irrigation,procurement and safe storage. Cooperative has to play important role in these.
He assured the Nacof of all government help in achieving the target of helping the farmers of the country.
On the sidelines he also said that constitution amendment bill in cooperatives have to come up for discussion. He invited the present assembly to give their opinion and suggestion so that the act achieves its goal.
The function hall was jam packed as friends and associates of Ram Ekbal Singh from the cooperative world had gathered to lend support to him. Ram Ekbal Singh also happens to be former chairman of nccf and thus an old hand of cooperatives.