Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Cooperative movement in Madhya Pradesh is suffering as a large number of Cooperative institutions are being run by the government officers instead of the elected body. When an administrator appointed by the government runs any institution then the voice of the public is heard in a lesser manner in comparison to the elected board of members.
Most of the MPs or MLAs want the elected board to run the cooperative institutions so that public issues can get redressed in an effective manner. The documents obtained from the government say that around 5,000 cooperative institutions and 4,517 Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) are due for elections in Madhya Pradesh.
Notably, there are around 52,000 registered cooperative committees across the state and according to an audit portal, around 27,000 institutions are in the category of zero working. Liquidation process is against 7,000 institutions.
The liquidation process is to be taken against 2,000 more institutions. There are a total of 22 state level apex cooperative institutions in the state and of them, 16 are having the administrators. Overall, there are 24 types of cooperative institutions in the state.
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They have 46,212 working institutions. Out of them 21,029 institutions are governed by administrators. The Milk Cooperative sector has the highest number of administrators. It has 8973 working institutions and of them 3499 institutions are run by the administrators.
There are a total of 38 district cooperative banks in the state and of them, 36 banks are having the administrator. A Member of Parliament, pleading anonymity said that when an elected body works in cooperative institutions then the public voice has a larger say into the issues.
The reason is that elected members have a direct contact with people and they know well that if they are not hearing the public voice then next time, they could not win the election without the public support, he added.
4,505 PACS governed by administrators
There are 4,541 Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) across the state. Of them, 4,505 are being run by administrators. Bhopal district has 34 PACS and all are governed by administrators.
There are 108 PACS in Sehore district and all of them have administrators. In Indore district, there are 120 PACS, all under the administrators. One of the officers of State Election Authority for Cooperative said that it is since 2018 that no election has been held in PACS.
Proposal for polls
It is up to the cooperative societies or institutions to give the proposal to the State Election Authority for Cooperative for election and they have to bear the entire election expense. On getting the proposal, authority conducts the election.
