Cooperatives Ministry not clear about its role: Secretary Joshi

LALMani Joshi, secretary at the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, has said his ministry is not clear about its role in the implementation of the programmes announced in the budget. Although the budget has highlighted effective role of the sector in employment generation and poverty alleviation, it has not clearly talked about the role the Cooperatives Ministry has to play, said Joshi at an interaction on Sunday. The budget has considered cooperatives as the bridge between government and the private sector. It has identified the sector as key contributor to employment generation through production, processing, distribution and mobilisation of savings at the local level. The government has also planned to provide subsidies to farmers’ cooperatives engaging in processing and marketing of vegetables, fruits, tea, coffee, ginger, and herbs. The budget has also announced subsidy to micro-hydro projects run by cooperatives. “Necessary legal and institutional arrangements will be made for making registration of cooperatives, supervision and monitoring tasks effective,” states the budget. Joshi said as the cooperatives-related programmes are scattered, there could be problems in coordination. “It would be better if the government forms a separate cooperatives unit under the Agriculture Ministry instead of setting up a separate ministry,” he said. The government had established the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation last year to promote the cooperative sector for poverty alleviation. Joshi blamed “weak laws” for increasing problems in the sector. “The Department of Cooperatives has failed to implement even good provisions such as one member-one cooperative in the exiting Cooperatives Act,” he said. Deepak Baskota, a cooperatives movement activist, said there is no clear link between various cooperatives-based programmes put forth by the budget. “It has raised a question about the effective implementation of the programmes.” Om Devi Joshi, director at the National Cooperatives Board, said the cooperatives department has to play an effective role in reducing the problems in the sector. “The department has to focus on major issues of malpractices in cooperatives instead of focusing its efforts on minor issues,” she said. Speakers termed the policies on cooperatives “ambiguous”. They also complained about low budgetary allocation for the sector and lack of working guidelines to control malpractices.