Bhubaneswar: All India Kisan Congress (AIKC) national coordinator Amiya Kumar Pattanaik Monday alleged that cooperative institutions in Odisha are steadily moving towards bankruptcy.
Pattanaik said that during the last 25 years of BJD rule and under the present BJP government, cooperative institutions have turned into centres of large-scale corruption, while the legitimate demands of cooperative employees continue to be ignored.
He alleged that cooperative-based oil mills, spinning mills and sugar mills have become defunct, and regulated market committees (RMCs) are failing to function effectively for farmers.
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The senior Congress leader said the acute shortage of warehouses for storing paddy and other crops, along with the complete absence of cold storage facilities for vegetables, is across the state.
“State’s cooperative institutions are surely heading towards bankruptcy,” Pattanaik said.
To address these issues, Pattanaik announced that the Odisha Pradesh Congress Cooperative Cell Monday launched the ‘Cooperative Protection Campaign’, starting from Ganjam district.
The campaign aims to strengthen the cooperative sector from the grassroots by making institutions active, transparent and free from corruption.
He said the Congress has prepared a detailed roadmap to create widespread awareness about various welfare schemes implemented through cooperatives for people of all sections during previous Congress governments.