Union State Agriculture Minister Mr Kundariya is busy these days seeking experts’ opinion on how to save NAFED the king of yesteryear among cooperatives. The agri-cooperative is experiencing a pang of death as all efforts so far to resuscitate it have failed.
Talking to India cooperative, Kundariya- a farmer himself from Saurashtra region said that the NAFED has real estate spread across the country and selling them off is one of the serious proposals doing the rounds in the Ministry these days.
As of now the agri behemoth is reeling from a huge bank debt and at least Rs 1300 crore is needed immediately to nurse it back to health from its terminal illness. The Modi government does not look eager to bail it out by offering fund straightway as is obvious from Mr Kundariya’s talks.
”Money acquired from the selloff of the NAFED land and properties must be used judiciously. We cannot tinker with the Board since it has been recently elected but the Board must spend the money with a sense of responsibility ”, Kundariay said in a -chat with this correspondent.
Readers would recall that the chances of the revival of Nafed had brightened up with the arrival of the NDA government on the scene , as reported in these columns. The new dispensation had evinced interest in its revival and lender banks also went soft in the beginning. Some banks had even said they were ready to forgo 40 per cent of their loans. In other words, a loan of Rs 2000 could be settled by Rs 1200 crore.
The early skirmishes between the government nominee Ashok Thakur and Bijender Singh also had given way to a working relationship with the former launching himself on the job of generating business and liasoning with his party to rescue the Nafed.
The Nafed Board had last year, before Kundariya’s declaration decided to sell off its assets to pay’ liabilities. It has already sold one of the houses in a posh neighbourhood in Delhi. Talks of selling off Lawrance Road property in Delhi and the iconic Nafed Tower at Ashram Chowk have been doing the rounds for a while now.
The NAFED which lost more than Rs 4000crore in the tie-up business during the late Ajit Singh’s Chairmanship has been struggling hard to recover ever since.