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Patwa decries plan to allow cooperatives to float companies

India's Agriculture Minister Sundarlal Patwa today opposed the official move to allow the cooperative sector to float and run commercial companies to earn profit.

He revealed his mind while addressing the valedictory session of the two-day All India Conference of National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks and Credit Societies in New Delhi. He said as the federal minister in charge of cooperation, he was against any such move by the government.

Patwa pointed out that the main objective of the cooperatives was distribution of the common good for the welfare of all its members, while profit was the sole motive of companies.

Patwa said profit would become the only aim of the cooperative companies if the official move based on the recommendations of the Y K Alagh Committee became a reality.

The government had appointed a committee headed by Alagh, eminent economist and former Union minister, which favoured cooperatives running commerical companies on profitable lines to avoid gross mismanagement and losses.

However, Patwa subsequently confessed that in ''these days of economic liberalisation and globalisation'', even persons like him have to adhere to the counsel given by bureaucrats. He said he had no choice.

S S Sisodia, president of the National Cooperative Union of India, the umbrella organisation of the cooperative sector, made a strong plea against commercialisation of the cooperative sector.

Minister of State for Finance Balasaheb Vike Patil assured that the government would facilitate a dialogue between the urban cooperative banks and the income-tax department to sort out differences over extending the tax net to such banking institutions.

UNI

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