Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The cooperative sector in Maharashtra and Gujarat has left a big mark by its success and employment to a large number of people, however, it is gasping for breath in Madhya Pradesh. This could be understood from the fact that out of the total 53,031 cooperative societies in the state, only 26,464 are functional.
As many as 18,289 societies are non-functional and 8,278 are under liquidation. According to the aforesaid figures, almost half of the cooperative societies are non-functional or under liquidation. If sector-wise societies are seen then women welfare cooperative society sector has the highest number of non-functional societies.
Against the total of 11,745 societies, at least 7,799 are non-functional and 1,012 are under liquidation. Only 2,934 societies are functional. The dairy cooperative sector has the second highest number of non-functional societies (2,677). As many as 1,550 societies of the dairy sector are under liquidation and only 6,134 are functional.
A cooperative sector expert opined that cooperative societies shall be given full autonomy and there shall be no interference of government into them. This will help in creating an atmosphere for cooperative movement in the state, the expert added.
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Former cooperative minister Gopal Bhargava said the non-functional societies prove a set back to the cooperative movement. He was of the view that good, qualified and creative people with cooperative nature shall come into cooperative societies as they give employment to crores of people.
A senior officer of the cooperative department said efforts were being made to revive the defunct societies. The government is paying a lot of attention to the sector and in the coming time, it will be a successful sector. On the other hand, senior Congress leader and former minister Dr Govind Singh said the cooperative movement has taken a nosedive in the state due to the erroneous policies and decisions of the government. Locks have been put on several societies. Now, it is only for name sake that the cooperative sector exists in the state, Singh added.
