State to set up finance body for co-operative sector

State to set up finance body for co-operative sector
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MUMBAI, MARCH 8: The Congress-led Democratic Front Government on Wednesday decided to set up an autonomous cooperative finance development corporation exclusively to boost the crisis-ridden cooperative sector.

``The corporation on the pattern of the National Cooperative Development Corporation with an initial share capital of Rs 255 crore, will be set up immediately to rejuvenate the co-operative sector, particularly the sugar and spinning co-operative units in a time bound period,'' Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told mediapersons after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

The main task of the new corporation will be to help the sector in the process of modernisation, revival of closed and sick units, advice on export and technical feasibility of the new projects. ``Before sanctioning the finance, the corporation will ensure the project is economically viable,'' Deshmukh said.

While the total share capital of the corporation will be Rs 255 crore, in the current year, a budgetary provision of Rs 51 crore will be made for the purpose. In addition, Rs 900 crore will be raised through bonds to ensure that the corporation is able to perform the assigned task.

The CM said, at the moment, 50 applications for co-operative sugar factories, 50 for co-operative spinning mills and 100 for smaller units are pending before the Government, which will require at least Rs 700 crore.

When it was pointed out that the decision to set up the finance corporation was against the spirit of the white paper on economy presented during the winter session of the State Legislature, Deshmukh justified the Cabinet decision, saying, such a corporation was necessary to save the co-operative sector having a total turnover of Rs 70,000 crore per year.

``In view of the resource crunch, it is not possible to make budgetary provision for the co-operative sector. Therefore, we have decided to set up an autonomous finance corporation to meet the demands of the sector. Each and every case will be dealt on merit without any political considerations,'' he added.

Deshmukh said he has asked the Co-operation Department as well as the Director of Sugar to draft a master plan on the requirement of new sugar factories as well as spinning mills. ``Now we will permit only such units, which fall within the norms prescribed by the master plan,'' he said.

The CM also said his Government has accepted the report of the high level indicator committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) V Rangnathan on removal of regional imbalance. Accordingly, Rs 4892.41 crore will be provided for Vidarbha, Rs 3275 crore for Marathwada and Rs 1921 crore for the rest of Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet decided to implement the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission for the 80,000 employees of the municipal councils. The additional burden on the State exchequer will be to the extent of Rs 147 crore.

Further, to promote information technology at levels, the Government has permitted secondary as well as higher secondary schools to charge reasonable fees for the computer classes conducted by them. The fees will be decided by the school in consultation with the Parents-Teachers Association.