NAHARLAGUN, Nov 20: The week-long 64th All India Cooperative Week celebration with the theme “Empowering People through Digitalization of Cooperatives” concluded at Polo Colony, Naharlagun on Monday.
NABARD General Manager (Itanagar), Dr Gyanendra Mani, who attended the closing function, advised the officers and co-operators to celebrate the occasion in a meaningful manner by reviewing the progress and achievement of the sector.
He further advised them to chalk out future plans and strategies to take the cooperative movement to newer heights.
Citing examples of various success stories, he advised taking up viable economic activities for the interest of the members and the sector as well.
Joint RCS, R D Thongon spoke about the importance of celebrating the cooperative week in the state and the country.
A seminar on role of Cooperatives in Financial Inclusion through technology awareness and cashless payment, cooperative for disadvantaged and economically weaker sections and cooperatives as a key partner for skill development was also held.
Managing Director of Apex Bank, Tsering Thongdok highlighted on Financial Inclusion (FI) and status of IT adoption by the Apex Bank, with various models of FI, like bank branches, extension counters, ATM, Micro-ATM, mobile ATM van, etc.
He suggested appointing the LAMPS as Deposit Mobilisation Agent (DMA) of the bank as they have grassroots level contacts and suggested the LAMPS to appoint self help groups and engage them in Customer Service Points (CSP) to reach the people living even in the last mile.
He said that all the 34 LAMPS may be revived and computerized with the assistance from the state government or NABARD so that they can be fully operationalized for appointing as a DMA of the bank.
“Since all the blocks in the state are not covered by the LAMPS, these blocks may also be covered either by the existing LAMPS or new organized LAMPS,” he said, adding that all the staff of Apex Bank and CSPs engaged by the LAMPS must be trained to bring professionalism in the Cooperative Sector.
More than 100 participants, including officers of the Department of Cooperation, Federal Societies, District Cooperative Unions, Primary Cooperative Societies of Capital Complex and officials from the district also attended the programme.
