Omkar Dattatray
The Cooperative week is celebrated every year from November 14, to 20 with an objective of highlighting the achievements of the cooperative sector in various sectoral areas and chalking out future strategies of growth based on dynamics of cooperative development in each sector.The 70th all India cooperative week was celebrated in spirit with the theme of dollar 5 Trillion Economy. Like other states and UT’s of India, the 70th all India cooperative week was celebrated in Jammu and Kashmir union territory with great fanfare and in this connection various functions and programmes were held across the UT to mark the cooperative week. LG inaugurated 70th cooperative week celebrations in J&K .He said that we are grateful to PM Modi, home minister and cooperative minister Amit Shah for support, guidance in promoting cooperative movement in Jammu and Kashmir. The clarion call of ‘Sahkar se Samridhi’ revived values, principles of cooperatives ,contributing to economic and social development. LG said that cooperatives will play an important role by spearheading the rural development ,developing critical infrastructure like godowns, cold storage facilities ,access to institutional finance ,national and international markets to realize the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.LG launched various new initiatives in cooperative sector .Dedicating the new initiatives to the people ,the LG said the on-boarding of 537 primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) as common service centres ,169 PACS as PM KisanSamridhiKendras and 25 PACS as Jan-Aushadhikendras will create new opportunities for cooperatives and develop a new business model .He said the launch of Sarhad Tourism Cooperative Ltd .in Uri aims to develop Uri-Boniyar tourism circuit and homestays in order to promote boarder tourism. This new initative will ensure greater engagement and inclusion of youth in the cooperative movement in J&K .The LG said Unnati Behan Program will focus on women empowerment and train them for selling and developing various products by cooperatives .It will also accelerate administration’s efforts to address gender equality in cooperative movement .At the inaugural ceremony ,the LG reiterated the commitment of J&K administration to explore more avenues for cooperatives in diverse sectors and extending its benefits to the population living in rural areas .The other projects launched and inaugurated by the LG are computerization of 537 PACS ,Dashboards for Cooperative banks and Societies ,website for 07 cooperative Super Bazzars ,Apple Pulping Unit Plant at Wagoora under Unnati Multistate Cooperatives ,and Global Milk & Food processing unit at Bari Brahamna ,Smart classrooms and Science Labs for several cooperative schools .The LG also laid foundation stone for 60 works under Capex 2023-24 worth Rs 13.45 crore and also dedicated 21 completed projects under CAPEX 2022-23 worth RS 4.54 crore to the people .He also felicitated the members of cooperative societies and released Cooperative departments compendium .Jammu and Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha inaugurated the 70th All India Cooperative Week celebrations across Jammu and Kashmir and launched various new initiatives in the cooperative sector .Different functions and programmes are being held across Jammu and Kashmir union territory during the cooperative week which will focus on the development of the rural areas as social and economic growth is the mission of cooperative movement and the social and economic development and growth of the rural India is being attained with the active support and participation of the general public as the people know it better that their social ,political and economic destiny will be developed through cooperative movement and hence cooperatives are given much importance as without the role of cooperatives ,the rural India will not progress and therefore it is important to develop cooperative movement so that real India which resides in villages will be developed .Various programmes are being organized and held across the Jammu and Kashmir union territory to mark and celebrated the 70th cooperative week with the active cooperation and participation of the general public and these functions and programmes will result in the development and growth of India as the rural India will develop as the real India resides in villages and unless and until villages are not developed ,no development of India will be possible and thus stress is laid on the development of rural India with the active involvement of the people and their representatives .The aim of celebrating the cooperative week is to make people aware about the role of cooperatives in the progress and development of the rural India and through celebrating of the cooperative week emphasis is laid on the development of rural India as without the development of rural India ,the mission of developing India and making India as a developed nation by 2047 will merely remain a pious dream and will not materialize and therefore it is mandatory and imperative to give due and proper thrust to the growth and development of India and for this cooperative movement needs to be strengthened .For this various new initiatives are being devised to altar the ground situation so far as the development of rural India is concerned .With this end in view the cooperative movement needs to be strengthened so that in actual the people in the villages will get the fruits of India’s development otherwise the developmental journey will be lopsided and thus we should focus on the development of rural India for the real development of the country .This can be done through revitalizing the cooperative institutions and cooperative societies in the country including the Jammu and Kashmir union territory .Therefore proper attention needs to be paid to the development of cooperative institutions so that they become real agents of economic and social change in order to benefit the people especially in rural areas .Thus the government of our UT should focus on the imperative of cooperative movement to harness the growth potential of the rural economy so that the people in rural areas will benefit from cooperative schemes .Let the cooperatives become the real engine of growth and development of the rural India in order to develop economy of India as the real India lives in villages. Therefore without wasting time and energy ,the administrators ,planners and executors of the country should focus on the cooperatives so that through the cooperatives ,the country will be in a position to harness the development of the country particularly of the rural India .Let the cooperative movement and cooperative institutions become real engines of growth and development of the economy especially the rural India.
(The author is a columnist, social and KP activist).
