Body to deal with sick co-ops proposed

The government was considering setting up an agency on the lines of the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) for deciding the fate of non-performing cooperatives in the country, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said here today.

"We are considering setting up an agency like BIFR, which will try to solve the problem of sickness for cooperatives," he told reporters after chairing the 59th General Meeting of the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) here.

Pawar said his ministry would take up the issue with the finance ministry and Planning Commission once the basic framework was devised.

"Setting up a BIFR-like agency for the cooperative sector is still at the nascent stage. We have to do a lot of homework before coming out with the final proposal," he added.