PUNE: The proposed amendments to the new Co-operatives Act will reduce the political interference in the functioning of the co-operative sector and thus ensure greater transparency and efficiency, a top official of co-operatives apex body National Co-operative Union of India (NCUI) said here.

“Indian co-operative movement is the largest in world. But it is declining steadily. We met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussed the issue recently. He asked us the reason for this decline in the sector. We told him that during the last 15 years, the political interference in the co-operative sector has leaped. This is the main reason for decline in the sector,” NCUI president G H Amin told Sakaal Times.

Elaborating further, Amin said that in seven to eight states in the country, there are no indicators of the core principles of co-operative movement like democratic control, transparency and efficiency.

“In Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, there have been no elections held for managing the co-operative bodies. In Uttar Pradesh, despite the elections having been conducted by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, after coming to power, Chief Minister Mayawati removed all elected representatives within two years of their tenure,” the NCUI president said.

This was contrary to the five-year tenure fixed under the Uttar Pradesh co-operatives law, he added.

“Same was replicated by Uttarakhand government. Due to these reasons, the problems of farmers never get resolved. Today one-third of co-operative societies are inefficient because of this,” he said.

Amin hoped that the amended Co-operative Act would reduce the influence of politicians, especially from the ruling parties.

“Our main suggestion to the Prime Minister was to include Co-operatives as separate chapter into the Indian Constitution as it was done by former PM Rajiv Gandhi for Panchayati Raj. This step streamlined the Panchayat system. We are hoping the same for co-operatives,” he said.

Amin has also demanded level playing field for the co-operative sector.

“The government is going all out to welcome private investments. They have been given huge sops like Special Economic Zones, numerous tax benefits and bail-out packages. Co-operative sector does not get such support even though our beneficiaries are the poor farmers. We want a level playing field to compete with the private sector,” the NCUI president said.

KEY PROVISIONS OF PROPOSED AMENDMENTS

- Election tenure for coop societies will remain fixed as five years. It can’t be altered by any government

- A separate independent election body like Election Commission be set up in all states to conduct free and fair elections

- Government will form an independent auditors panel for detecting financial shortcomings, without any political interference

- Government administrators will not continue for more than six months

- Members have right to check the accounts and get relevant information about financial performance of the coop body

- Annual general meeting has to be called compulsorily every year for administrative independence, transparency and uniformity