Power-hungry politicians ruin co-op move: Patel

Spelling out one of the major roadblocks that the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has run into, its chairperson Amrita Patel said the "so called co-operators" are unwilling to relinquish a power base in the larger interest of the producer members and that "such resistance was being faced by NDDB in most states".

Patel, however, struck a conciliatory note as far as the management of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) was concerned, stating that she was referring to politicians who were not willing to give up control of co-operatives.

She said on Tuesday, "V Kurien is not a politician." It may be recalled that GCMMF, a federation of milk unions across Gujarat, and NDDB, a body that implements the Operation Flood programme in the country, are at loggerheads over corporatisation of co-operatives for the past few months, with the former opposing such a move.

Speaking at a function organised by NDDB at Anand which was presided over by President A P J Abdul Kalam, Patel said the pace of growth of co-operatives has slowed down.

"Today co-operatives reach only about 18 per cent of the villages of the 14 major dairying states and cover about 17 per cent of the milk producers of our country. Regretfully, the pace of growth by the cooperatives has slowed, primarily because of the rapidly growing competition in the market place and the fact that our co-operatives beyond Gujarat do not have the autonomy, sound governance and lack competent professionals to manage the business efficiently," she said.

Patel went on to term co-operatives in other states as state public sector units (PSUs).

"Cooperatives outside Gujarat can really be called state PSUs. They are by no definition institutions of users as they should be. The forces of globalisation and liberalisation will have to be met through increasing productivity and increasing efficiency in the entire system from the village to the market. For this we require much greater professionalism and technologies to be taken to our rural areas," she said.

She said if professionals are to be inducted, an appropriate environment needs to be created which will nurture and encourage them to give their best.

There is also a need to cover the hundreds and thousands of milk producers left out of the cooperative domain. Patel, however, said NDDB is at present focussing on setting up of `new generation co-operatives', taking advantage of the recently enacted Producer Company chapter of the Companies Act.

"This legislation protects the basic principles of co-operation, while providing the legal and regulatory framework enjoyed by companies. We believe this will bring in professionalism to a larger extent, at the same time safeguarding the co-operative structure and values," she said.