State level seminar deliberates on Training and Education of Cooperative Societies

GANGTOK, 10 June [IPR]: State level seminar on Training and Education to Cooperative Societies of Sikkim was held in the capital today. The seminar organised by Sikkim State Cooperative Union (SICUN) was chaired by Minister RM&DD and Cooperative Department, SB Subedi.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Mr Subedi called for proactive participation of people in this high-priority sector. Lauding the efforts of SICUN to develop the cooperative sector in the state, he stressed on the need to encourage the youth to come forward and embrace this sector.

He categorically stated that the practice of sub-letting public works granted to Cooperative Societies needs to stop immediately. Further, the Minister assured full support towards the development of the Cooperative sector in the state.

Secretary Cooperative Department, Ujjwal Gurung in his opening remarks called for the need to diversify the activities of the Department and SICUN towards areas like food processing and tourism for sustainability.

Earlier, delivering his welcome address, president SICUN, Ganesh Rai mentioned that International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) has announced the current decade as ‘Cooperative Decade’, with a vision to attain self-dependence and sustainability. He urged the participants to embrace this vision in the State.

He further informed about SICUN’s plan to conduct trainings at every Gram Vikash Kendra in the state. He also informed about the coming up of quality infrastructure in the form of a Cooperative Training Institute under the aegis of SICUN at Assam Lingzey, East Sikkim which is nearing completion and also assured that future trainings will give more emphasis on training the youth and unemployed as per the vision of the Government.

He stressed about a need to shift from consumer mentality to producer mentality. Cooperative has a major role in this regard, he said. Mr Rai proposed the initiation of a grading system to judge the performance of cooperative societies and the best of the lot be given special preference for public works by departments.

He requested the Department to facilitate attachment of a few officers to SICUN to address the challenge of manpower shortage. Mr Rai informed about a three-day specialised training for cooperatives incorporating all the suggestions placed in today’s meeting. He invited the participants for their suggestions. Suggestions were also sought about the quality of resource persons to impart these trainings.

During the technical session, Executive Officer, SICUN, BK Subba presented a report on training activities carried out by SICUN since 2006. He elaborated on the types of trainings conducted during the reporting period duly listing the categories of people trained. Mr. Subba also invited suggestions from representatives of the cooperative societies about any alterations or up gradations in the training modules. He also threw light on the Annual General Meetings of the Union and further informed about the calendar of training at block level in the year 2014-15.

The technical session was also addressed by Managing Director Denzong Agricultural Cooperative Society, MT Sherpa. He shared his learnings from a recent exposure visit to Brazil to attend an International Cooperative Expo.

This was followed by a deliberation on Training and Education by Additional Registrar Cooperative Department, RK Gautam.

He ruled out the practice of sub-letting works for individual benefits and called for effective check and balance in this regard. He further sought cooperation from department officials and SICUN in matters related to training and education and audit.

In his deliberation, member of Board of Directors, Parasmani Dangal called for introspection on the quality of awareness/publicity/education and training on the ideology/concept and the behavioral aspects of cooperatives. Mr Dangal cited inadequacy of literature/ resource in this subject and the almost non-existent literature on the work/success stories.

Lamenting that these aspects have hampered the cooperative movement, he called for sharing of positive stories through various media to make cooperatives a subject of general discussion.  He stressed on the need to inculcate a sense of collective ownership. He further suggested that trainings should be result oriented and should bring about a distinct change in the opinion/ concept of the people about cooperatives.

This was followed by sharing of experience by Managing Director SIMFED, Kuber Bhandari from his participation at a recent cooperative expo in Delhi and an International organic food products display in the month of March 2014. The learnings from these forums suggest that the value of organic products of Sikkim is immensely high in the national and international market, he said.

This calls for a mission to ‘grow more’ because of adequate national and international market. Placing a few suggestions, he added that the trainings imparted by SICUN could incorporate aspects like packaging, sorting grading and quality management of products, how to increase shelf life of perishable items, cluster approach of farming, need for exposure trips for cooperatives.

The event also witnessed the Release of Training Calendar 2014-15 by the Secretary Cooperative Department. The concluding remarks were made by Deputy Chairman SICUN, LP Kafley