Dr Thino Zeliang
For any settlement or territory to prosper, economic activities of different kinds have to be implemented by individuals or groups of people. Even after four decades of attaining statehood, very little of such enterprises have come up within the state. The resultant unemployment and the accompanying degeneration of the moral value system in our society is alarming. The easiest way for any individual to comment on such a situation is to put the blame on the government machinery. To me, government is expected to act as the facilitator, teacher and promoter and not the implementer since the very structuring of government set up itself has not provided for such a mammoth operation of implementing economic activities that would feed the entire populace of the state or the nation. It has been seen universally that government intervention in economic activities has invariably resulted in evolving artificial backward and forward linkages. This is what is popularly called ‘protectionism’ or in lay man’s term – pampering. Under such circumstances, when the government eventually withdraws its intervention (which is increasingly becoming inevitable under the liberalized economic scene), the enterprise collapses miserably. Once again the government is blamed. I am writing this to look at certain positive initiatives taken by the government of the state to promote the cooperative organizations.
A sense of euphoria prevails in the cooperative sector within the state on observing the conscious effort made by the DAN government under the able leadership of the Chief Minister, Neiphi-u Rio to create a cooperator friendly environment. The recent announcement made by the state government to formulate its own Cooperative Act is a welcome development. The personal initiative taken by the Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary, Cooperation, deserves all praises. Till now, the cooperative organizations have been governed by the Assam Cooperative Act, 1949. What is more heartening is that the government is involving all the cooperative organizations in the consultative processes rather than handing down a rigid manual of procedures and rules. I am sure we would soon be having a vibrant, people-oriented and forward looking Cooperative Act that would propel us to be active participants in the global economy.
A cooperative with least or no outside interference is one that would be able to sustain itself even under rough waters. The success of the Dairy Cooperatives under the banner of KOMUL can also be greatly attributed to the increased autonomy being granted to the farmer-members. Here again the credit should go to the department of Vety. & A.H. under the leadership of the incumbent Minister and Parliamentary Secretary in-charge who have had the great vision and wisdom in facilitating the accelerated process of democratization, empowering the dairy farmers. The vesting of overall control of the Dimapur District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, the pioneers of white revolution in the state, to the Board of Directors under the chairmanship of an elected farmer member in full conformity with the Bye-laws, have paved the way for the organization to adopt a market oriented path. It also has resulted in creation of an Apex level Nagaland State Dairy Cooperative Federation Ltd. presently having two members, namely – Dimapur and Mokokchung District Milk Producers’ Unions, to implement and monitor all dairy activities under the Cooperative structure throughout the state. The Federation is also governed by an approved Bye-law created under the existing Cooperative Act & Rules which stipulates devolution of powers to the member cooperative societies. In this manner, the three-tier cooperative mechanism as envisaged under the Anand-Pattern Dairy Cooperative structure has been successfully implemented. I have no hesitation to say that a time tested economic entity under the cooperative principles and philosophy is put in place and that with determination, commitment and of course the encouragement and blessings of the government, this structure would continue to grow and would be instrumental in alleviating poverty and unemployment within the state to a great extent.
(The writer is the Chairman, Dimapur Dist. Coop. Milk Producers’ Union Ltd—KOMUL)
