The State Minister (independent charge) of cooperative, higher education, dairy development and protocol, Dhan Singh Rawat chaired a meeting to review the functioning of cooperatives in the provisional State Capital Dehradun on Monday.
He directed officials to conduct an elaborate inter-state cooperatives meet and exhibition in Uttarakhand from May 13 to 19.
Union Minister, all the five members of parliament from Uttarakhand and ministers will participate in this seminar cum exhibition.
Addressing officials in the meeting, Rawat said that at present the cooperatives department is not being able to work effectively for the welfare of the poor people. He stressed that focus should be laid on maximising the publicity of the welfare schemes offered for poor people through the cooperatives department in the state.
He further directed the officials concerned that in order to strengthening the cooperatives, meetings should be called in three separate rounds with the primary agriculture loan cooperative committee secretary (cadre secretary), the additional development officer (cooperatives) posted at the development block level, the assistant registrar (cooperatives) and the officials of the headquarters.
The meeting of the primary agriculture loan cooperative committee (cadre secretary) should be organised separately in both the Garhwal and Kumaon regions, directed the minister. Corruption will not be tolerated under any circumstances, the state minister said, while addressing the deputy registrar and assistant registrar (cooperatives) along with the general managers of all banks, district cooperative banks and branch managers of the district cooperative banks.
Rawat went on to state that guilty officials will be penalised while those who perform well will be rewarded. He said that the officer concerned can also get in touch with him directly in case of any problem being faced in the effective implementation of any scheme.
He said that the cooperative banks can play an important role in mitigating the problem of migration as cooperative banks have a reach to the village level.
For this the minister directed that as much as possible loan should be facilitated to self help groups especially women groups working in rural areas to facilitate the operation of commercial activities.