In a major climbe down cooperative giant IFFCO had to shift its venue from Vigyan Bhavan to Manekshaw Centre, in the army cantonment area of Delhi.
IFFCO is holding an International Cooperative Conference on the eve of International Year of Cooperative (IYC 2012) on 4th and 5th July. The President of India Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil has consented to inaugurate the function in which about 1300 delegates from 17 countries are expected to take part.
IFFCO sources say that invitations had already been sent out and this last-minute shift of venue is bound to cause inconvenience to participants.
Iffco found itself in the cross-fire of Environment Ministry and Vigyan Bhavan with the former insisting that it had booked the Bhavan much in advance to hold some inter-governmental conference of about 189 countries on the subject of environment.
Given the dwindling respect for cooperatives in the government, Iffco beat a retreat and shifted its venue to army cantonment area.
The International Cooperative Conference would be based on the theme “Cooperative Enterprises Build a Better World”.
Meanwhile, IFFCO is going ahead with massive preparations to make the conference a huge success. Talking to Indiancooperative.com, Director of Cooperative Development at IFFCO, Dr G N Saxena said that delegates in large number from the country as well as abroad would participate in the Conference.
Readers could recall that the year 2012 has been declared International Year of Cooperative by the United Nations. The conference would be our tribute to the cause of cooperative movement, added Dr Saxena.