New Delhi: The Central government has created a new ministry to strengthen the co-operative movement and Amit Shah has been made the Minister to helm the ministry in addition to his Home Minister duty. But the opposition are not so content with the Ministry of Cooperation and call it a 'political mischief' and an assault on federal systems as cooperative societies fall under the state mechanism.
The Congress smelt something fishy behind the intention of the creation of the Cooperative Ministry, alleging that the ruling BJP is eyeing on the controls of the cooperatives in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The Multi State Cooperative Societies Act of 2002 that gives the Centre the power to oversee the activities of the multi-state cooperative societies is already in place prompting the Congress to question the need for a ministry.
The Congress has also a strong feeling that the BJP government wants to exert their dominance over the cooperatives in Gujarat and Maharashtra most of them are being controlled by the Congress and NCP. One of the senior Congress leaders from Maharashtra said that the BJP is losing its ground in Gujarat and it expects something it could do with the Ministry and Amit Shah at its helm to overhaul the situation ahead of the State Assembly elections.
But the left parties have another view about the Ministry. The CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury called the Ministry an attempt to dismantle federalism. "Cooperative Societies is a state subject in the Constitution's 7th Schedule. It is yet another assault on federalism. After looting PSU banks giving huge loans to cronies now targeting deposits in cooperative banks across the country for more loot," his tweet read.
The CPI D Raja questioned the scope of the Cooperative Ministry since the Cooperative sector falls under the domain of state governments and related to economy. He also wondered at the logic of handling the Ministry, which is very much related to the economy, by Home Minister, terming it as an attempt to snatch the rights and powers of the states.
Meanwhile, the BJP leaders countered the allegations citing the Central government's extension of financial assistance to cooperative establishments at times of financial crises and called allegations of the oppositions unfounded.
Maharashtra has around 2 lakh cooperative societies with an estimated total membership of 50.5 million. According to state official data, there are 21,000 primary agriculture credit societies and 31 district cooperative banks.