One day conference on opportunities and challenges before Co-operatives for northern states comprising of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi was organised on 12-08-2017 by National

Cooperative Union of India at Regional Institute of Cooperative Management Chandigarh which was attended by prominent co-operators, leaders and officials of the concerned states and other part of the country. The chief guest of the function was Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, M.P. (Rajya Sabha) & Chairman NCUI and KRIBHCO.

At the outsets, Shri Kulwinder Singh Bhaikera, Chairman, Management Committee, RICM Chandigarh welcomed all the guests by presenting the bouquets.

The program was inaugurated by lighting the lamp by all the distinguished guests, followed by Saraswati Vandana.

The proceeding of inaugural session was started with the welcome address by Shri Mohan Kumar Mishra, Executive Director, NCUI/Secretary, NCCT. In his address, he introduced all the distinguished guest to audience and threw light over the objective of the conference.

Shri N. Satya Narayana, Chief Executive, NCUI was the next speaker who had presented a brief picture of co-operative movement of all the northern states covering all the sectors and also suggested what a lot could be done to further strengthen the movement of the respective states.

Shri D.V. Deshpande, Director, BIRD, Lucknow gave a brief description of what NABARD has done for the upliftment of co-operative especially PACS. He made special mention of C.PEC, and its achievement in the area of training of personal associated with co-operative bank and societies.

“Doubling the farmers income in the next 5 year is the main target for the central govt. and co-operative can play an important role in achieving this target” were the keywords of Shri J.P Mishra, Advisor,  NITI Aayog. He further urged co-operative that they should increase their loaning in allied Agri activities like dairy, poultry, fisheries etc. as the farmers in their relatively free time can engage themselves in these activities and thus can increase their income.

 Shri D.S. Thakur, Chairman, HIMCOFED & Member Governing Council NCUI, while mentioning the great contribution of Shri Mia Hira Singh for establishing first Cooperative Society of the Country; also called for youth (through a turnaround story) to convert challenges into opportunities.

Shri G.D. Bakshi, General Secretary, J&K Cooperative Union gave a brief description of the present situation of J&K State and suggested that there is enough potential for expanding Poultry, Tourism & Fruit Processing Cooperatives in the State for that sincere efforts are required.

Sh. Rameshwar Chauhan, Chairman HARCOFED has briefly mentioned the steps taken by Haryana to make the Cooperatives Self-Reliant. Efforts are on to concentrate over Non-Fund based Income activities, especially by the PACS, he added.

Shri Gurpratap Singh Khushalpur, Director LABOURFED Punjab & Member Governing Council, NCUI, while speaking on the achievements of Credit, Marketing & Dairy Cooperatives etc. of Punjab State, said that there is a need to pay attention on Tourism & Construction Cooperatives to give a further boost to Cooperative Movement of Punjab State.

Shri K.S. Bhaikera, Chairman Management Committee RICM Chandigarh presented a Brief Report of RICM’s Training Activities and future plan.

The Chief Guest of the program Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, M.P. (Rajya Sabha) expressed concern over the pathetic condition of the farmer. He said that 60-65% of rural population is purely dependent on agriculture and 35% of the total population is directly or indirectly associated with the

co-operatives .But it is quite painful that nothing is talked about the co-operative in parliament. He suggested that there should be a separate ministry for co-operatives.

Dr Bijender Singh, Vice President, NCUI, in his presidential address emphasised role of quality training and education for further improvement of cooperatives. He suggested to follow Gujarat and Kerala pattern to become viable.

The vote of thanks was presented by Dr K N Sinha, Director (GCP) NCUI. He expressed sincere thanks and gratitude to Chief Guest and other guests for their valuable suggestion and guidance.