ONGOLE: District Congress Committee (DCC) president and former Minister G.V. Seshu has criticised the Telugu Desam Party for politicising the issue of bringing back dairy units from Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies (MACS) Act, 1995 to Cooperative Societies Act 1964.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, Mr. Seshu contended that condition of dairy units has turned from bad to worse after they were brought under the new Act.

Some people, who took control of the units, allegedly misused their powers and resorted to corrupt practices and landed the dairy units in greater crisis than before.

Accountability

So the Government has discussed the issue with various organisations including Lok Satta for the last 18 months and finally decided to revert them to 1964 Act.

While the 1964 Act implemented three-tier cooperative system, the 1995 Act gave powers only to the village and district-level societies. So the Government has decided to bring the dairy units under 1964 Act and decentralise powers and ensure accountability. But as the old Act would help win back confidence of farmers in the cooperative system, private dairies like Heritage are afraid of losing their clout, he alleged.

The 1995 Act helped the dairies to appoint even retired officials as their Chief Executive Officers and appoint their own auditors.

This gave scope for misuse of powers. Prakasam district dairy, for instance, incurred a loss of Rs. 3.33 crores during the first year after coming under the 1995 Act and it is not in a position to pay salaries to its employees. It has handed over the plant to NDDB.

Similarly, Nellore dairy which got converted into MACS with a surplus funds of Rs. 7 crores, is now running with a loss of Rs. 2 crores and is compelled to borrow heavily from banks.

The situation is no better in Guntur dairy. But it is surprising that Lok Satta is throwing its weight behind MACS Act in a bid to support one section of the farmers, he alleged.

Legal problems

He wondered as how Lok Satta supported the attempts of Visakha Dairy to go under Company Act against the principles of cooperation. There is no truth in the contention of that cooperative dairies are selling butter at less price than the dairy units under MACS. While the cooperative societies demanded a price of Rs. 114 per kg, those under MACS sold 350 tonnes of butter at Rs. 80 a kg causing irreparable loss to them.

Mr. Seshu hoped that the Government would discuss with experts and surmount the legal problems and bring all dairy units under 1964 Act, which is more useful to farmers.

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