The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Members for freeing cooperatives from control

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 19, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Members for freeing cooperatives from control

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The cooperative movement, now in its centenary year, continues to be controlled by the Government and it has become "policy-centric rather than people-centric", the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, D.H. Shankaramurthy, said on Monday.

Initiating the debate on the demands for grants of the Cooperation Department, Mr. Shankaramurthy said there have been several committees, including the Ardhanareeswaran Committee and the Brahm Prakash Committee, apart from the more recent Vaidyanathan Committee, which have all said the same thing: excessive interference from the Government has been the main reason for the failure of the cooperative movement in the country.

The Vaidyanathan Committee has even come up with a model Act which State governments could implement or use as a guide to draft their own Acts and laws to regulate and monitor cooperative institutions.

Instead, what had happened over the last four decades was that the Government began imposing its rules, and threw Gandhiji's vision of using this movement to open the doors to economic independence out of the window, Mr. Shankaramurthy lamented.

Joining in the discussion, B.K. Chandrashekar (Congress) told the Cooperation Minister, R.V. Deshpande, that the Government should seriously introspect on the ironical interpretation of players in the cooperation movement being "given independence".

The definition of the cooperative movement is a group of people making common cause for economic development, and there is no role for the Government to play, except regulate and ensure that there is no misuse or corruption. "If the cooperatives are in a mess, we as Government, and policymakers, are party to it," he added.

Basavaraj Bommai (Janata Dal-U) remarked, "The ideal situation is that cooperatives rule the Government, be strong and robust economies in themselves, and empower the rural small entrepreneur.

But here the Government has rendered the cooperative toothless and some have gone to the extent of using the cooperative movement to build a personality cult around them."

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