Telangana state bags four NAFSCOB awards

Karimnagar: Konduru Ravinder Rao, chairman of NAFSCOB, TSCAB and Karimnagar DCCB, has opined that all the states in the country should replicate the Chhattisgarh state model of cooperative movement for the benefit of the farming community and rural development.

Rao was speaking at the NAFSCOB national conference on strengthening of cooperatives in the country in Raipur of Chatisgarh state on Monday. He said that the Chhattisgarh state was rooting every programme through cooperative banks and primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS). Even the Public Distribution System (PDS) is done by the PACS in Chhattisgarh state, he stated.

In order to benefit the farming community and promote organic cultivation, the government had taken up "Go-dhan" (cattle-treasure) wherein they were collecting the cow-dung from the farmers and preparing agarbathi, cow-dung cakes, producing gobar gas and electricity, manure such as vermin-compost etc. He said that the Chhattisgarh state had collected over 90 lakh quintals of cow dung from the farmers during last one year.

On the paddy procurement front, the government without waiting for the FCI and other agencies for the payments, the government instructs the cooperative sectors to release the money directly to the farmers and later the government would repay back to the cooperatives with interest. The government was spending over Rs 20,000 crore for the procurement of farm produce through cooperatives. The farmer centric measures since last three years had also helped increase the area of cultivation by 8 lakh hectares in the Chhattisgarh state. He stated that the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister was also confident that all the migrant labourers would definitely come back to the state for taking up farm operations.

Participating as chief guest the conference, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said that the state government is making consistent efforts to benefit maximum number of people through cooperatives. Fertilizers and seeds are distributed to the farmers from the cooperative banks, he said and added that the Chhattisgarh is becoming a model state for farmer-friendly schemes.

The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister presented NAFSCOB awards to Karimnagar DCCB (all-India first prize for overall performance), Choppadandi PACS (all-India third prize), TSCAB (all-India third prize) and TSCAB Cooperative training institute (third prize).

Chatisgarh Agriculture Minister Ravindra Choubey, NAFSCOB managing director Bheema Subrahmanyam, TSCAB MD N Muralidhar, Karimnagar DCCB chairman N Satyanarayana Rao, DCCB vice chairman P Ramesh and others were also present.