State Cooperative Policy calls for training and dispute resolution tribunal

Panaji: Minister for cooperation Subhash Shirodkar on Thursday released the Goa State Cooperative Policy, which aims to improve and modernise the functioning of cooperative societies in the state. It will be in place for five years and will focus on efficiency and transparency through digitisation of cooperative societies, and dispute resolution.

The policy also aims to increase the number of cooperative societies in agriculture, small industries, floriculture, horticulture, fisheries and IT.

“One thrust is on providing autonomy to cooperative societies while they function professionally. For this, they need to get training, which is why training institute is required in Goa. We thought that those who work in the cooperative sector as well as the staff of the department need to get training,” said NRI commissioner and former South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar, who helped draft the policy.

“There is a need for a separate cooperative tribunal to be established for dispute resolution, which has been proposed in the policy,” Sawaikar added.

The department has been looking at improving the financial health of cooperative banks and credit societies. One key indicator is loan defaults, and the department has established an NPA monitoring cell within the registrar of cooperative societies.

“Many of the credit societies disburse loans, but repayment remains a challenge. We have told cooperative banks and credit societies that the manager who disburses the loans has an equal responsibility to recover them. That is why we issued a directive that loans disbursed from Jan 1, 2025 have to be fully recovered. We created a separate cell to monitor this for the last one year and three months, and we have seen that the 19,066 loans that were disbursed amounting to Rs 1,041 crore, of which just 105 accounts have turned into NPAs and the NPA amount is just Rs 65 lakhs,” said Shirodkar.
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