Cooperative sector can bridge rich-poor gap: Radha Mohan Singh

Union minister Radha Mohan Singh said here Tuesday that the cooperative sector could bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

He also said there was a need to have skilled manpower to run the cooperative institutions in the country.

The Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister was speaking at the foundation day of Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management (VAMNICOM) here.

"In India, the culture of cooperation existed for a long time. However, the cooperative policy was framed in 1904. There are more than eight lakh cooperative societies, which are currently existing in the country and we need skilled and professional manpower to run these institutions successfully," he said.

He lamented that after the Independence, the cooperative sector has got weakened, which created a big gap between the rich and the poor.

"It is the cooperative movement that can bridge this gap," he said.

The minister said that transparency through computerisation is the only solution to raise the economic standards of agri-based cooperatives.

"One needs to act upon the suggestions made in the M S Swaminathan report to ensure appropriate growth in the agriculture and cooperative sectors," said Singh.

He emphasised that cooperation is the key to achieve the vision of 'sab ka sath, sab ka vikas'.

Satish Marathe, Director of the central board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), who was also present on the occasion, informed the gathering that diversification and legal system in cooperative sector are yet to take the desired shape.

"The agriculture sector is moving forward as the government's main agenda that is doubling the income of farmers and the time has come to focus on agri-business in general and food processing industries," he said.