Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, April 2:

Inaugurating the 48th National Cooperatives day, Radha Krishna Mainali, minister for education and sports said that time has come to review the cooperatives’ movement. The achievements made by cooperatives and the constraints that stood in the path of development of cooperatives in the run of 48 years need to be reviewed before formulating new policies, he said.

Cooperatives are established to provide service rather than earning profit and the government has been failing to identify the sectors where cooperatives could work better, Mainali added. Raising the issues of artificial shortage of consumer goods that hits the market often, He opined of running cooperatives industries rather than privatising them.

Deepak Prakash Banskota, president of National Cooperative Association said that the plans and policy formulators have been keeping the cooperative sector in shadow.

To prevent artificial shortage of goods cooperative should be reinforced, he said. Banskota also urged the government to stop importing powder milk. Government should buy milk from farmers and prevent milk holiday, he said adding that cooperatives could be a proper tool for uplifting tourism sector.

There is a need of separate budget and ministry for the development of the cooperatives, said Dhaka Ram Aryal, president, Central Milk Producer Cooperative Association.

“The Milk Development Board has failed to introduce policies in the favour of millions of farmers,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, various experts highlighted the importance of cooperatives. It was also informed that seven cooperatives would be awarded for their contribution.