Times of India Report

Run co-ops like corporates: CM

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Pune: Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Saturday said that co-operative societies should be professionally managed like corporates. Deshmukh also said that wellrun co-operatives should be rewarded for their efficiency. “There should be some mechanism to incentivise them, may be a package for expansion. Or professionally-managed co-operatives may end up feeling they are at a disadvantage and that it is better to be a defaulter.” The CM was delivering his keynote address at the 11th convocation of the Post-graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM) course of the Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Co-operative Management (Vamnicom), Pune, on Saturday. The institute’s PGDBM programme is focused on agri-business management. He was speaking in the context of the financial packages announced by the Centre for sick co-operative sugar factories in the state, as well as for sick co-operative banks. Earlier, Prithviraj Chavan, Union minister of state, Prime Minister’s Office, said the government might take up the revival of the sick short-term cooperative credit structure (STCCS) by recapitalisation, in the forthcoming budgetary session of the Parliament. The central government has already approved a package of Rs 13,596 crore for STCCS, recommended by a committee headed by A. Vaidhyanathan. The panel also recommended pumping in Rs 4,839 crore for the ailing long-term co-operative credit structure, which is in its draft stage. Deshmukh said the government was ready to contribute to the Rs 200-crore corpus being raised by the 20 co-operative management institutes in the country.

Deshmukh