Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today inaugurated the 68th All India Cooperative Week across the J&K UT at the Teacher Bhavan, Jammu.While inaugurating the celebrations of the 68th National Cooperative Week, the Lt Governor extended his best wishes to all the members of cooperative societies, Farmer-Producer Organisations, and all those involved in the modernization of Super Bazars of the Cooperatives.Expressing gratitude towards Prime Minister, the Lt Governor said that it is under the guidance of PM Shri Narendra Modi and Hon’ble Home & Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah, the country is witnessing renaissance in Cooperative movement to address the developmental needs of underprivileged sections of the society.“We are determined to deepen the cooperative movement as a people-based movement to reach citizens at the grassroots. The J&K administration is making efforts to facilitate development of new women and youth cooperatives and provide them with a solid support system to flourish”, he added.The Lt Governor said that the government aims to increase the number of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies by providing much-needed support to the people in every Panchayat. This will substantially increase the credit lending in Agri & allied sectors and benefits will also flow to small and marginal farmers, he added.The Lt Governor stressed that in order to truly realize the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi’, Cooperatives in J&K UT must focus on agri-marketing, food processing, branding, supply of seeds and other innovative activities in dairy & handicrafts.The Lt Governor also underscored that Mission Youth in J&K is working as a Cooperative entrepreneurship organisation and demonstrating how business with cooperative spirit can lead the way to tackle the modern challenges.“Cooperative movement is not just about business or credit lending. It is our way of life. Every person has to work together for the same goal- a prosperous, peaceful and Aatm-nirbhar Jammu Kashmir UT. We must work together to protect and promote social and economic rights of every individual”, he added.The Lt Governor impressed upon all the stakeholders to take necessary steps via cooperative institutions in making all panchayats of the UT prosperous and creating village infrastructure, so that by taking inspiration from the past, we can build a prosperous future.“I believe that cooperative is the most credible medium of socio-economic development of farmers, rural population, unorganized sector workers, women, and we need to assess its creative, transformative potential in various fields, to meet the needs of rural and other areas. Accordingly, institutions have to be developed and wherever old institutions are inactive, efforts will have to be made to revive them”, he added.Terming Panchayats and Co-operatives as two sides of the same coin, the Lt Governor said that if Panchayat represents grassroots democracy and administrative system, then the cooperatives strengthen their self-reliance, competence and autonomy in at least 20 sectors of the rural system like cottage industries, agriculture and allied activities by raising its economic side. At the same time it protects the interests of the deprived sections, he added.The Lt Governor gave examples of
