Strengthen cooperatives, not corporates: Vinod

 WARANGAL: Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman Boinapally Vinod Kumar stressed the need to strengthen co-operatives as it is the only solution to the economic problems in the country. He was speaking after inaugurating the Karimnagar District Cooperative Central Bank (DCCB) branch at Avunoor village of Mustabad mandal in Rajanna Sircilla district on Monday.

Vinod said, “We should develop cooperatives, not corporate. Cooperatives will help to develop backward and forward linkages in the agriculture sector.”

 Vinod said that after Independence, the Union government and the state governments supported the cooperative movement. But in later stages, some of the governments had blamed cooperatives and encouraged private sectors and now the privatisation has turned into corporatisation, he noted.

 He pointed out that corporatisation was making only a few people turn into millionaires whereas the cooperative societies will help Micro, Small and Medium scale Enterprises  (MSMEs) to face the crisis they are facing now.

 He said there were around 80 per cent of the farmers in the country were small farmers who have land holdings of below two acres and they cannot afford to purchase advanced agricultural equipment to improve their productivity. The Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) and the Rythu Bandhu societies must take responsibility for providing agricultural inputs to such farmers through cooperatives along with providing employment by mechanisation and modernisation of the sector, he suggested.

 The chairman of the NAFSCOB, TSCAB and Karimnagar DCCB Konduru Ravinder Rao, ZP chairman N. Aruna, DCCB Chief Executive Officer N. Satyanarayana Rao, Director Mohan Reddy, ZPTC member G. Narsaiah and MPP member Sharath were present.