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National policy on co-operatives finalised

A national policy on co-operatives to make the sector autonomous and self-reliant was finalized on Friday with Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar suggesting constitution of a task force for ensuring its proper implementation.

"The proposed task force will chalk out an action plan to ensure that the policy is implemented effectively to enable the co-operatives to meet the challenges of globalisation," Kumar said at a conference of co-operation ministers of the states which formally endorsed the draft policy.

The policy while curtailing government interference in the functioning of co-operatives to give them autonomy, would ensure accountability, he said, adding that the regulatory role of the government would be mainly limited to the conduct of timely elections and audit.

He said a well-defined policy on co-operatives was needed for sustained growth of self-reliant cooperative societies for meeting the sectoral and regional aspirations of the people.

On the increasing role of co-operatives under economic liberalisation and globalisation, he said that internal and structural weaknesses of co-operatives combined with lack of proper policy support had neutralised the positive impact.

In view of several institutional, financial and governance problems faced by co-operatives and wide regional imbalances in their development, the national policy would facilitate all round development of the sector.

Minister of State for Agriculture Sripad Y Naik said the policy aims at professionalisation of the co-operatives and democratisation of their operations for making them self-reliant and economically viable.

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