Claiming to be capable of beating Planning Commission limitation of Rs 32 per day per citizen NCUI Preisdent Chandra Pal Singh Yadav asserted that cooperatives could make each of its member earn Rs 200 perday. He called on the government to have more focus on cooperatives.
There has not been a word on cooperatives in the five years plans though our membership counts 23 crores lamented Mr Yadav on the eve of 58th All India Cooperative Week organized by National Cooperative Union of India in Delhi on Friday.
There are 6 lakh villages and we have one lakh PACs(Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society). Cooperatives can easily access the last man in the village, he said. But when in the entire budget speech we hear not a word on cooperatives, we feel pained, he added.
To a pointed question on corruption in cooperatives, President admitted its ill-effect and said we are opposed to it and would welcome investigating agencies doing their job. Readers can recall that NAFED scam has had the entire cooperative world spinning on its head.
He said that in order to work on professional lines it is necessary to strengthen the cooperative HRD. India has the biggest network of HRD institutions in the cooperative sector in Asia but the existing infrastructure and fund availability are inadequate.
Many of the States are not in a position to offer the training programs and improve efficiency. HRD in cooperative sector should be accorded a top priority by the Government to boost its efficiency and productivity so as to enable it to compete with the MNCs and Private sector, Dr Chandrapal Singh added.
Dr. Yadav informed that the cooperatives do not work for profits and give dividend to their members. He said that the cooperatives are the only model for upliftment of the weaker sections of our society and have the capability to meet any challenges in the field of rural credit, fertilizer, distribution of agriculture inputs, housing, fisheries etc. He said that, the cooperatives are the backbone of agriculture and rural economy and can reverse the migration from the rural to the urban areas by creating stable means of livelihood.
He pointed out that the Govt. support is crucial to the growth of the cooperative sector in the country. He demanded income tax exemption under 80-P of Income Tax Act to strengthen the capital formation of the cooperative institutions. He said that the cooperative sector opposes the Direct Tax Code Bill as the bill proposes to reduce tax rates for the corporate sector to 25% while it retains 30% for the cooperatives. He informed that the year 2012 has been declared as the “International Year of Cooperatives” by United Nations.