Perhaps taking a cue from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi the apex national co-operative body NCUI focused its attention on north-east and held an impressive zonal conference to strengthen the cooperative movement in Sikkim and other neighboring states.
A visibly satisfied NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh said” people of the area have understood the fact that if the downtrodden are to be uplifted it has to happen through strengthening the cooperative movement”, he said to Indian Cooperative.
The Zonal Conference for Cooperatives of Eastern and North Eastern States held in Gangtok on 18th October, 2016 was inaugurated by Sikkim State Cooperative Union, S.B. Subedi, Cooperation Minister of Sikkim. The conference was jointly organised by NCUI and Sikkim State Cooperative Union.
Speaking on the occasion the Minister said that the Govt. of Sikkim has taken various initiatives to make the Cooperative Movement a people’s movement. He also said that at a time when people have become individualistic, it is the biggest challenge for cooperatives to attract the people based on cooperative principles and values. As Sikkim has become the First Organic State, Subedi said that there are tremendous opportunities for cooperatives in this field.
He acknowledged that the Central Govt. and NCUI have helped a lot in building up the infrastructure of Sikkim State Cooperative Union. He further said that there are 3,604 societies with 1 lakh members in Sikkim.
The Conference was attended by Registrars, Chairmen and Managing Directors of State level Cooperatives of Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim etc. Directors of RICMs and ICMs and state level leading cooperative representatives from Sikkim were also present on the occasion.
Ms. Anjana Lama, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Sikkim speaking on the occasion said that technology adoption by cooperatives banks is important, and in this respect NABARD is playing an important role making cooperative banks well equipped. She further said that strengthening the grass roots level institutions like primary multi-purpose cooperative societies in Sikkim is the biggest challenge.
Dr. Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, President NCUI & Member of Rajya Sabha speaking on the occasion assured all help from NCUI in strengthening the cooperative movement in Sikkim by providing financial resources as well as expertise when needed.
He also assured that cooperative educational field projects in Sikkim will be operationlised soon. He emphasised on bringing women and youth into the cooperative movement. Stressing on technology, he said that membership of primary agriculture cooperative societies should be online so that there is transparency in the functioning of cooperatives.
R.K. Gautam, Registrar Cooperative Society, Sikkim and Narendra Kumar Mandal, Registrar Cooperative Societies, Bihar also spoke on the occasion. Earlier, Ganesh Rai, Chairman, Sikkim State Cooperative Union said that quality training and education is the need of hour for strengthening the cooperative movement in Sikkim. He also said that attracting youth towards cooperatives is a big challenge as there is lack of enthusiasm for cooperatives among the youth.
Mohan Kumar Mishra, Executive Director, NCUI in his opening remarks elaborated on the importance of the conference in strengthening cooperatives in Eastern and North Eastern region.
No govt interference in the functioning of cooperatives, granting tax exemption to cooperatives, formulating a training policy for cooperatives by all the states, enhancement of women participation, etc. were some of the major recommendations of the conference made.