NCCT delink case festers, leaders display apathy

The matter of NCCT delink from NCUI which came up for hearing last week in the Delhi High Court is likely to be a long haul with the change of the judge this time. The new date, according to NCUI would come after 3 months.

The lingering matter is benefitting everybody except the cooperative movement. Lawyers are charging fat fees while NCUI and NCCT look helplessly, said a NCUI top official on condition of anonymity.

NCCT, which has exhausted almost all of its reserved fund is on the verge of bankruptcy, said an insider. More than NCUI, it is the NCCT which wishes to solve the matter for once and all, he added.

Ministry, on its part is happy with or without a verdict as is the style of functioning of any govt department. First, it sought date after date and now with the change of the judge the matter got postponed to a much later date, which suits Ministry eminently, said a co-operator.

On the last date last week, the Ministry has again filed a fresh set of papers buttressing its claim and its right to delink NCCT from NCUI. The new judge would indeed need time to study them, say experts.

Meanwhile, efforts by NCUI’s top leadership to have an out of court settlement, also seems to have borne no fruit so far. At one point of time its President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav sounded very confident about a solution but the euphoria has given way to the despair now.

Cooperators also blame NCUI and its leaders for not making enough efforts with the Ministry. “You have to lobby hard and lobby continuously to get a result”, they argue. Most of them are busy traveling abroad for one co-op meeting to another without any concern for their cooperatives back home, they charged.

Even though NCUI has a very substantial law point in its favour, it has failed to get any reprieve and with the NCUI Board election around the corner the issue would be automatically put on the back burner. NCUI will have to begin the poll process latest by December of this year as elections are slated for February next year.

Cooperators in general are also not satisfied with the way NCUI is handling the case of Constitutional Amendment Act 2012 which got stayed by the Gujarat High Court. A brilliant piece of act, CAA 2012 is yet to see light of the day. Cooperators feel NCUI should have thrown their weight behind the Act and forced the govt to fight the case more seriously.

While the issues like CAA and NCCT continue to cry for solutions, a large posse of Indian co-operators have begun preparations to attend the upcoming ICA Conference in Rwanda next week.