Amendments to Co-op. Act deferred

By S. Rajendran

BANGALORE, AUG. 26. The proposed amendments to the State Cooperative Act, which was the bone of contention at a recent meeting of the State Cabinet, would be carried out only after the announcement of the proposed national cooperative policy, according to the Minister for Cooperation, Mr. D. K. Shivakumar.

He told presspersons here today that Karnataka was in the forefront of the cooperative movement, and it was not his intention to damage that honour of the State. ``I am not here for petty politics or for ruining the cooperative institutions, but to protect the people's money in the cooperative field,'' he said.

Mr. Shivakumar spiked rumours over differences between him and the Minister for Major and Medium Irrigation, Mr. H. K. Patil. Mr. Patil is a committed cooperator and heads a host of cooperative institutions including the National Urban Cooperative Banks Federation. It was said that Mr. Patil and several other like-minded ministers had opposed the amendments to the Cooperative Act since they would ``spell doom'' for the cooperative institutions.

Reports had it that the Cooperation Minister was prevented by some of his senior colleagues from obtaining the approval of the Cabinet to some important amendments to the Cooperative Act. The charge against the minister was that he was attempting to bring in certain draconian measures against cooperative institutions. The previous Janata Dal Government had made certain drastic changes in the Cooperative Act - it was the first time in about four decades that the Act was being amended.

Mr. Shivakumar said he wanted to introduce certain amendments based on his experience as the Cooperation Minister over the past year. ``I have now decided to seek the views of veteran cooperators, cooperative institutions and former ministers, including Mr. S. S. Patil, who was Cooperation Minister for five years during the Janata Dal rule. I have also been holding discussions with Mr. H. K. Patil in this matter,'' he said.

``Whatever be the political differences, I will not meddle with the cooperative bodies. Over the past one year, the Government has not superseded even a single cooperative institution. I am not here to create problems. There are 1.5 crore members of cooperative institutions in the State and the public deposits in these institutions are around Rs. 15,000 crores. Should I not ensure that the public money is safe. The Government has stood guarantee for a loan of Rs. 1,844 crores obtained by the cooperative institutions, and has also invested Rs. 230 crores in the form of share capital.''

The Minister said that the Congress(I) President, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, had written to him on the features of the Madhya Pradesh Cooperative Act, enacted recently. The Karnataka Government would study the Cooperative Acts of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir before finalising the changes that it proposed to introduce. ``There is no need for promulgating an ordinance to bring in the changes. There is no compulsion for such things,'' he added.

Referring to nominations to cooperative institutions which the Congress(I) had opposed when it was in the Opposition, he said: ``I agree with nominations to the cooperative bodies. The previous government granted voting rights to the nominated members, and I go with that decision.''

The Government would organise a discussion on the draft national cooperative policy. The Centre had constituted a committee of seven member- states to ascertain the views of various sections of the people on the draft policy.

The committee, headed by the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr. S.B.P.P.K. Satyanarayana Rao, comprises the cooperation ministers of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Manipur and Haryana. The committee would meet in Bangalore on August 28 and 29.

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