Sarbik Gram Unnayan Karmosuchi Will Be Expanded To All Upazillas: PM

She said 4,275 village cooperatives associations have been formed in 66 upazilas across the country under "Sarbik Gram Unnayan Karmosuchi". "The programme would be expanded to all upazilas of the country to further infuse dynamism into the rural economy," she said.

While inaugurating the 43rd National Cooperatives Day at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre here this morning, Sheikh Hasina said through this programme, the cooperators are producing various products after receiving training.

"The rural economy will witness a revolutionary change if these produces could be sold at fair prices through cooperative market network," she said.

In this connection, the Prime Minister called upon the authorities concerned to raise cooperative market network through undertaking specific plans. "It would also reduce the influence of the middlemen as well as ensure reaching of adulterant-free quality products to the consumers," she added.

At the function, Sheikh Hasina handed over "Jatiya Samabay Puroshkar-2012" among nine cooperatives organisations and one individual for their contribution to the field of cooperatives.

LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam and State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Moshiur Rahman Ranga were present at the function as the special guests.

Rural Development and Cooperatives Secretary MA Kader Sarkar presided over the function, while Registrar and Director General of the Department of Cooperatives M Mafizul Islam delivered the welcome address and President of Jatiya Samabay Union Sheikh Nadim Hossain Lipu spoke.

The Prime Minister also put emphasis on integrating the cooperatives in the mainstream of the development through a well-organized plan.

"Though the history of Bangladesh's cooperatives is over 100 years, this movement has advanced through various experiments and successes and failure. Now time has come to incorporate the cooperatives in the mainstream of the development through a well-organized plan," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said her government wants to utilize the cooperatives movement to ensure development of living standard of the people.

"Our main aim is to ensure development of the living standard of the people through socio-economic uplift. To achieve the goal, we want to utilize the cooperatives movement as one of the tools," she said.

Stressing the need for sustainable use of limited farmland and producing crops as per the demand, Sheikh Hasina said the aim of the development activities of her government is also give comfort to both producers and consumers.

The Prime Minister also called for setting up multistoried cluster village to check wastage of farmland. "We want to make every village self- reliant where everything including schools, markets, mosques and temples will exist," she said.

Noting that the cooperatives is the best way to check wastage of farmland, she said wastage of farmland would be checked if such villages could be built in the planned way.

"The cooperatives could organise the people, utilise the innovative power of all and solve any problem together," she said.

The Prime Minister said the cooperatives organizations across the world have been playing an important role in producing and marketing of essential consumer goods. "There is a successful instance of the cooperatives in milk production and marketing in Bangladesh," she said.

Paying rich tributes to the greatest Bangalee of all time Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina said the great leader had dreamt of bringing smiles on the faces of the poor people through building Sonar Bangla.

"Bangabandhu wanted to establish exploitation, deprivation and oppression-free Bangladesh," she said. To achieve the goal, she said, Bangabandhu had wanted to utilize cooperatives as an important weapon and placed it as the second sector of the ownership in article 13 of the constitution.

At the directives of the Father of the Nation, various cooperatives-based programmes had been launched. But the dream of the Bangalee nation was shattered through the killing of Bangabandhu in 1975, she said.

To materialize the dream of Bangabandhu, she said, her previous government after assuming office in 1996 started different programmes.

The Prime Minister said to materialise the dream of the Father of the Nation, the present government has been implementing various programmes for socioeconomic uplift of the countrymen.

"The main target of the development activities is to make the poor people self-reliant by freeing them from the evil cycle of poverty," she said.

The Prime Minister said, after coming to power in 1996, her government took various cooperatives-based measures for the welfare of the people including Asrayan Project for the homeless people as well as creating their self-employment opportunities through imparting training.

She said farmers were provided with seeds, fertilizers and insecticides through agri-based cooperatives, while steps were also taken to bring every single person from various professions under the umbrella of the cooperative.

After assuming the office in 2009, Sheikh Hasina said, her government again took steps to strength the cooperatives movement and gave priority to it to gain the goals of "Vision-2021" and the election manifesto.

"As a result, the number of cooperative members has jumped to 1.02 crore which is nearly 20 percent of country's adult population,"she said.

Sheikh Hasina also mentioned that the total capital of the cooperative members was about Taka 11, 844 crore in the 2013-2014 fiscal and they earned Taka 76 crore as net profit through investing their capital.

Besides, she said, employment opportunity was created for about 4.84 lakh cooperative members.

Talking about making the cooperative laws more time-befitting, the Prime Minister said her government formulated the amended cooperative act in 2013 as well as cooperative policy 2012 to undertake various cooperatives-based activities in the development process.

Spelling out her government's various steps for development, Sheikh Hasina mentioned that Bangladesh started its journey in faster speed on the development highways.

"The journey will have to be accelerated further to turn Bangladesh into a middle income country before the year 2021," she said, urging all to perform their own responsibilities with utmost sincerity and integrity.

-Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)

Photo: Saiful Islam Kallol