The start of the twelfth five year plan is giving jitters to National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI). Will it get fund or will it not is a big question haunting NCUI so far. With its political leadership in shambles and a Chief Executive who is hardly a veteran of cooperative affairs, the future of NCUI is indeed at stake.
Owing to a number of reasons the Union Agriculture and Cooperation Ministry is not favourably disposed towards the apex organization. It is the recommendation of Union Agriculture Ministry to the Planning Commission which decides the size of the cake. There is apprehension among NCUI officials of not getting any cake at all.
Ministry has stopped 12 central schemes in non-cooperative sector so far. It has also merged several schemes together to curb expenditure. NCUI has so far defended its project and training schemes from either closure or merger. But will it be able to do so for long, even the Chief Executive is not confident.
Planning Commission has to send its recommendation to NDC meeting scheduled sometime next fortnight. It is here that the future of NCUI projects and that of NCUI would be discussed. If the Agricultural Ministry champions the cause of apex cooperative strongly, NCUI would come out unharmed otherwise only God could save it from extinction.
Babus of Ministry have antipathy towards NCUI. Agricultural Secretary Mr P K Basu is said to view cooperative organizations as parasites which depend on government for nourishment and do nothing on their own. Our cooperative leaders have failed to impress upon them the benefits of cooperative movement if it is implemented with purity of purpose. The states of Bihar, Chattisgarh and Orissa are living examples.
Cooperative-aided paddy procurement this year has yielded handsome return to farmers whose faith in farming and cooperatives have strengthened by the novel experience.
Encouraged by the results Chattisgarh government has decided to build grain godown in each primary agricultural cooperative society of the state. Our Union Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar has often toyed with this kind of idea but with little results so far.
The pessimism of bureaucracy and its political masters, it is feared, would sabotage the cooperative movement. You may change leaders, you may change bylaws or even its constitution but you cannot deface NCUI from the cooperative landscape of the land. We need an apex cooperative organization like NCUI to guide and goad people towards a vision which was so dear to our first visionary Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.
“Don’t’ throw out the baby with the bath water”, warns the ancient. Hope Ministry’s bureaucrats are listening.