Amit Shah proposes poll body for cooperatives across country

Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday that elections in cooperatives should be held in a democratic and transparent manner and suggested that a body on the lines of the Election Commission to conduct the polls.

Shah, who is in charge of the newly created Ministry of Cooperation, made the proposal at the two-day national on National Cooperation Policy.

The Centre is all set to bring in model by-laws to govern around 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) across the country and is also formulating a national policy for cooperatives that is likely to be finalised by the end of this year.

Shah said the defunct PACS should either be revived or taken for liquidation process. “Corporates and industries may bring development in the country, but cooperative is the only model that can help in the equitable distribution of profit to 80 crore economically backward people in the country. We have seen this happen; cooperative movements such as Lijjat and Amul are examples of this,” the minister said.

The cooperatives are a source of political power in many States such as Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal and some of these cash rich cooperatives are controlled by opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, CPI(M) and the Congress. Out of a total 8.5 lakh cooperatives in India, around 1.77 lakh units are credit cooperatives and the remaining 6.8 lakh are non-credit units.

Shah said the Centre does not intend to interfere in the functioning of state cooperatives, but will endeavour to bring uniformity in state laws through dialogue and coordination.

The Minister of State for Cooperation B L Verma, Secretary D K Singh, National Cooperatives Development Corporation Managing Director Sandeep Kumar Nayak were among those at the event.

The conference will see the Centre and states deliberating on suggestions received from 56 stakeholders on the proposed policy.

Present legal framework of cooperatives, identification of regulatory policies, operational barriers, reforms for strengthening governance, making cooperatives vibrant economic entities, training and education promoting new cooperatives, including social cooperatives, and revitalising defunct ones are some of the topics under discussion.