Ever since the registration of first cooperative society in 1905 at Kanaginahal by Sri SS Ramanagouda Patil in Karnataka, Indian Cooperative movement has progressed leaps and bounds. The Industrial revolution was a death blow to village industries leaving only agriculture as source of employment and livelihood. Excessive taxation, illogical lending rates, illegal exaction lead farmers to bankruptcy and distress. The need of agricultural sector for seasonal loans and their exploitation by private money lenders ultimately necessitated the need to have cooperative banks/societies. As early as 1904 cooperative movement was made a State Policy as such the Cooperative Societies Act was enacted. Right now Indian Cooperative System is the biggest in the world, agriculture and allied sectors are flourishing on basis of cooperative societies only. Around .85 million cooperative societies with 290 million members, 17 national cooperative societies, 390 state level federations, 2705 district federations and around ten thousand Primal Agricultural Societies are working to lead the Indian Cooperative Movement. NAFED, IFFCO,AMUL are few most successful model cooperatives. Maharashtra is leading Cooperative Movement with 1.78 lakh cooperative societies, 50 percent state population connected, 31 district cooperative banks, one society for two villages against national average of 6 villages per society, 65 percent state credit for agriculture through cooperative credit system against national average of 35 percent, agriculture and sugar being major focus area. Even neighbouring Punjab has successful cooperatives like Verka and Sugar mills with 20 Cooperative Banks. Maharashtra, Punjab and other states have their own failure stories as well. Jammu and Kashmir also witnessed cooperative revolution but like other sectors nepotism, corruption, favouritism and lopsided policies totally ruined the cooperative societies of Jammu and Kashmir. Fact is all Cooperative Banks of Jammu and Kashmir are running in losses, restrained by RBI, without Central Banking System and some branches even without computerisation. There was plan to merge these banks in 2020 which was ultimately withheld after HMO’s intervention and focus on cooperative movement in Jammu and Kashmir got renewed as in present scenario cooperatives are the most viable way out for unemployment issues. Recapitalisation plan has been worked but this is one part to get out of mess. Unless serious inadequacies in day to day governing and board members responsibilities gets fixed, NPAs will keep on rising making recapitilisation irrelevant over a period of time. No business module can work without profit and as such professional approach is must. Jammu & Kashmir Milk Producer’s Co-operative Limited is classic example, Milk plants started in 1959 at Kashmir and 1970 in Jammu, turned into societies in 1983 then shut down in 2004 after years of losses, merged and revived with support of Amul .
Things are fast changing under Cooperation Ministry as every effort is being made to revive defunct societies and focus now on registering new societies with viable working plan in place. Government is providing even trainings to thousands of youth to reap the fruits of cooperative movement. Special focus being on women and youth empowerment, various departments are working in tandem to help these societies with financial, planning and marketing aid at different levels. Jammu and Kashmir has enough talent and products to have a national level recognition, it’s just question of guidance and help from government. Sahkar Se Samriddhi is the tagline in India @75 year, factually GoI and LG Administration are putting extra efforts to put derailed Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Movement back on track.
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