Reacting to the proposed clause in the draft amendments to Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002, NCUI President, Dileep Sanghani has said that the existing provision in the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 through which NCUI has the authority to collect and manage the Cooperative Education Fund must remain unchanged.
Elaborating, Sanghani said maintenance of Cooperative Education Fund by the Government will give a signal that the government wants to control the fund, in which it has no contribution, which is against the autonomous principles of cooperatives. He said this will be against ICA’s 4th Principle of Cooperatives which is “Autonomy and Independence”.
NCUI is an apex body of the cooperative movement in the country. Education and training is one of its prime objectives well recognized by GOI and cooperatives. As per section 63 (1) ) (b) of the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act,2002, ‘a multi-state cooperatives society shall out of its net profits in any year credit one per cent to cooperative education funds maintained by the National Cooperative Union of India. The Fund amount is 25 crores annually.
The Cooperative Education Fund was created under Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 1984, and has been maintained by NCUI since inception as per guidelines of the government. The Education Fund committee in which NCUI President is the Chairman, also comprises senior officials of the Ministry whose approval is taken before sanctioning of funds for various education and training programmes.
The application of funds for education and training programs, decided by the Committee, is reflected in the Annual Account and Annual Report of NCUI placed before the Parliament. Through the proposed draft, the government wants to act as the custodian of the fund so that there may be better monitoring and administration of the fund, and those multi-state cooperatives societies not contributing to the Fund may do so with penalties. However, till date there have been no complaints regarding the use of funds.
Based on the views of the representatives of member institutions, NCUI has voiced its concerns over the various issues pertaining to the draft amendments of Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 including the issue of Education Fund, to the Ministry which recently has sought comments from the various national federations on the draft amendments. The members have felt that the management of the Education Fund by the Central Government will marginalize the importance of NCUI which is an umbrella organization of the cooperative movement. There is also a feeling that under the present arrangement, the government may come up with more stringent utilization measures of the fund, or have few more nominees in the present committee of the Fund.
Further, it is apprehended that if the Central Government takes control of this fund, then at the state level also respective state governments may take control of such funds in its fold, which may affect activities of education and training at the state level. The members felt that in accordance with cooperative principles, the government should decentralize the rights of cooperatives instead of controlling them.