Co-ops to get new lease of life with Rs 13,000-cr injection

PUNE: A Rs 13,000-crore programme is being drawn up to restructure co-operatives in the country, according to Prithiviraj Chavan, MoS in the PMO. A report has been accepted by the government and the Centre is looking into the matter.

This financial package is for short-term restructuring of co-operatives and will include state and district co-operative banks and primary agricultural co-operatives.

An additional package of Rs 4,000 crore is being sought for long-term restructuring that will include state co-operative agricultural and rural development banks and primary co-operative agricultural and rural development banks across India.

This was announced at the convocation of the PGDBM batch of Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Co-operative Management (VAMNICOM). Bhagwati Prasad, director VAMNICOM, said there are 20 co-operative management institutes in the country.

Till now, the central government was funding these institutes but after the 11th Five Year Plan comes into force, this funding will stop.

The National Co-operative Union of India (NCUI) has started creating a corpus of Rs 200 crore so that these colleges can become self-sufficient. Out of this Rs 160 crore has already been collected.

CM Vilasrao Deshmukh said the cash-strapped Maharashtra government will contribute to this corpus. The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and VAMNICOM signed an MoU wherein MCX will train 10,500 trainers over five years who will in turn conduct training sessions for farmers so that the farmers can take advantage of hedging.