NCUI AGM: Sanghani claps for Ministry but rants on Education Fund

The apex co-op body in the country, NCUI held its Annual General Meeting at its headquarters in Delhi on Thursday wherein its President Dileep Sanghani applauded the recent initiatives of the co-op ministry on one hand and sought the restoration of the primacy of the NCUI in the Education Fund, on the other.

The AGM was full house with all the board members present except Govt Nominee Uday Joshi. Jyotindra Mehta and Dollar Kotecha could also be seen on the dais. Several delegates from across the country came to attend the AGM.

Sanghani was full of praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Co-operation Minister Amit Shah for the Cooperative Congress success and asked the august General Body to pass a resolution of “Thanks the PM” for encouraging the co-op sector in an unprecedented manner both by his speech and by his presence.

“Through the new Ministry, the problems of the cooperative movement are being successfully tackled, and many of the issues pertaining to cooperatives have been resolved, there are issues pertaining to the cooperative movement where we have had disagreements”, he stated.

“We all know that people infuse capital in cooperatives and the government plays the role of a partner by supporting these organizations. When there is government interference in the working of these organizations, the nature of these organizations is affected”, he said in his scripted speech.

Recounting history, Sanghani said since the passage of Multi-State Cooperative Societies Amendment Bill in 1984, NCUl acted as the custodian of this Fund and according to the guidelines of the government, an amount approved by the Committee headed by NCUI President, was spent for education and training activities.

“However, according to the rules of the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Amendment Bill, 2022, all the 9 members of the committee are government officials. Since the cooperative education fund is the money collected from cooperative organizations, its management should be in the hands of cooperative leadership”, he says.

“We have recently forwarded our proposal to the Hon’ble Union Minister of Cooperation for his consideration. I hope that he will give a serious thought to this issue and there will be more representation of cooperative leaders in the committee, and as before, the NCUI President will be the Head of the Committee”, the written passage reads.

Sanghani also expressed his displeasure on a separate scheme which is being formulated for cooperative education and training without NCUI. “While the names of cooperative training institutions in the states are mentioned, NCUI’s name is not there. In this respect, we have sent a representation to the Ministry based on certain facts and logic. I have full confidence that NCUI will be given an important role here”, he said.

We have also made a representation on multi-state credit and deposit societies which are being subjected to rules and regulations like that of cooperative banks. They give loans to small traders, their business capital is not adequate, he said.

Sanghani also tendered an apology to delegates saying the NCUI Hostel is being renovated to accommodate more co-operators, causing inconvenience to them presently. The three storied building is being converted into 7 storied with all the latest facilities for you. The next generation of co-operators will indeed thank the current Governing Council for this move, he said.

At the close of the year, there were 282 cooperative organizations representing various sectors of the cooperative movement as members of NCUI. Also, during the year, four meetings of the Governing Council were held, informed Sanghani.

The National Centre for Cooperative Education (NCCE), New Delhi organized 203 training programs including 12-week Diploma Programs in Cooperative Development with achievements exceeding its target of 107 programs during the year 2022-23, he underlined.

“During the year 2022-23, the NCUI Cooperative Education Field Projects conducted 71 skill development programs attended by 2,398 participants. In an active membership drive, 6,898 new members were enrolled during the year. A total of 144 seminars and workshops were organized. While 103 new SHGs were formed, 26 new cooperatives were registered during the year”, he informed.

As an important initiative, NCUI collaborated with the Ministry of Cooperation in development of the National Cooperative Database by providing the expertise in setting up the parameters of Data Collection Templates, said the President. NCUI Vice President Dr Bijender Singh proposed a vote of thanks.