The Cooperative fraternity sank into gloom as soon as the news of the demise of the doyen of cooperators Shivajirao Girdhar Patil came in Saturday morning. Patil who was on the board of several national level cooperative federations died at a private hospital in Mumbai.
A man who gave 70 years of his life to the cooperative movement could be spotted till recently attending board meetings in Delhi. He was also a member of the Governing Council of apex body NCUI where he was nominated on being the Chairman of National Heavy Engineering Cooperative.
Established 25 years ago NHEC is promoted by the National Co-operative Development Corporation (NCDC) and is supported by the national federation of co-operative sugar factories. It aims to help India gain self sufficiency in the supply and modernization of sugar plants.
Patil had been with NCUI for more than 30 years.” He was there on the GC when I joined NCUI roughly 30 years ago”, recalled N Satyanarayan CE of NCUI. We are deeply saddened to hear about his death,” he added.
Talking to Indian Cooperative on phone from Jhansi NCUI President said “it is an irreparable loss to the movement”.
NCUI promptly sent condolence messages with bouquet from the Vamnicom headquarters in Pune. Several leaders have sent their condolence messages for the departed soul.
Shivajirao Patil was also Chairman of the High Powered Committee constituted on cooperatives by the govt of India in 2007-8. The new sprawling building of NCUI that one sees today was during Patil’s time when he was an active member of the Construction Committee assigned with the job in late nineties.
Patil was very close to Sharad Pawar who, on his death, described him as a leader who would never let go of his commitments to the cooperative movement. Rahul Gandhi Congress Vice-President also mourned his death. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis described him as a stalwart of the cooperative movement.
Shivajirao Patil the father of late National Award winning thespian Smita Patil was a committed Congressman who held various ministries when Vasantrao Naik, S.B. Chavan and Vasantrao Patil were the Chief Ministers.
Patil was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2013 for services to the cooperative movement in Maharashtra.
Indian Cooperative joins others in mourning his death.
