Cooperative University to be set up at Pune

New Delhi, Nov 13 (UNI) The National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) has created a Corpus Fund of Rs 200 crore to take up cooperative training programme and has decided to set up a International Cooperative University at Pune for human resources development.

Mr Ghanshyam H Amin president of (NCUI), announced this on the eve of 54th All India Cooperative Week, which begins from tomorrow.

As a part of strengthening the 100 years old cooperative movement in the country, the top brass of a dozen top Cooperatives including that of IFFCO,KRIBHCO, NCCF, NAFCUB,NFFC and NAFED addressed the mediapersons airing their views against the government for favouring the private enterprise and giving 'step-motherly treatment' to the cooperatives.

The government's rules and regulations become flexible, laws undergo required amendments and bureacratic heirarchy bends backward at the biddings of the private players while cooperatives continue to sulk for years for a minor concession, summed up a NCCF leader on grievances of the cooperatives.

And, the setting up the SEZs by the government is a clear manifestation of that, he added.

Cooperatives could serve both the producer and consumer very well, said the Chief of the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF) adding that however, the government allowing the setting up of big malls to facilitate the entry of retail giant WallMart will ultimately end up creating big gap between the rich and poor, providing a fertile ground for the proliferation of naxalites in the country.

The Cooperators felt that while fertiliser manufacturing giants IFFCO, KRIBHCO are success stories of the cooperatives but each have chartered a separate path for them and are not coordinating with one another to boost the cooperative movement in the country which is the only answer to concentrating of wealth among a few hands while pauperising millions of countrymen.

In this context, KRIBHCO's preference for tie-up with Satyam Telecom for acquiring a fertiliser plant at Shahjahanpur in UP at 50: 50 basis also came for discussion.

In the end, NCUI spokesperson, Bhawati Prasad summed up that after the country adopted liberal policies in 1990s, the public sector gave way to private sector leaving the cooperatives toterring and it craved for funds,legal and logistic support from the government which was least coming up.

The NCUI beleives that there are more than five lakh cooperatives in the country with 100 per cent coverage in the villages, and 75 per cent reach in rural households thereby controlling a formidable sector of Indian economy.

UNI