J&K’s ‘Super Bazars’ register net profit of Rs 1.83 cr in 3 years

JAMMU, DEC 17: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Farooq Khan today asked the officers of the Cooperative Department to devise a mechanism for establishment of at least one Cooperative Super Bazar in each district.

Advisor, while chairing a review meeting of Cooperative Department, maintained that the Super Bazars have the potential of doing tremendous business if run on professional lines. He asked the officers of the department to upgrade these business outlets on modern lines making them attractive and preferential place to go for the customers.

It was informed in the meeting that the Super Bazars had a cumulative turnover of around Rs 113.46 cr during 2018-21 with a net profit of Rs 1.83 cr for the same period.

Advisor emphasized upon the officers to work for over achieving the targets fixed for each of them. He asked them to utilize the local contacts by visiting the field regularly to know about strengths of their respective areas so that the required number of societies is established. He asked them to facilitate people in establishment of societies that have potential to grow in their areas.

He said that each district of J&K has its own products to promote be it tourism, agriculture, horticulture, poultry, dairy or other allied activities and asked the officers to tap this potential by involving people in their plans.

Advisor stressed on the need of running cooperative banks on professional lines by involving relevant people having necessary expertise in the field to man the board and management of banks. He asked the department to look for ways and means to reduce the NPAs in these banks and focus on recovery of loans being extended by them.

Secretary Cooperatives elaborately explained the activities and achievements of the department.
She asked the officers to submit their monthly performance reports regularly in the devised format without any fail. She also impressed upon the district heads of the department to work for achievement of bulk of their targets in next couple of months to avoid any mismanagement in the end of the financial year. She maintained that the task of revival of the department might be a bit difficult but not distant to accomplish if done with a missionary zeal.

Registrar Cooperatives apprised the meeting of various measures being taken up by the department for its betterment. He informed the meeting that all the Super Bazars have been registered on GeM portal besides bar coding and smart billing in these Bazars is also in progress. He said that Rs 250 lakh have been earmarked for modernization of these Bazars by the department.

Regarding achievements recorded by the department, it was informed that the department has already launched a portal for online registration of cooperative societies to save time of public and ensure transparency. The elections of cooperative societies have also been held and around 359 notifications regarding the same had been issued till now, as claimed in the meeting, in different districts of J&K.

Similarly, the department has registered a number of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in several districts of the UT. It was also informed that the department has switched to e-office for swift and hassle free functioning.

The meeting was also apprised that there are 1492 Cooperative societies registered with the department under Cooperative Societies Act, 1989. These included banks, stores and business outlets related to agriculture, housing, poultry, dairy and Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS). Besides, there are 2193 societies registered under J&K Self Reliant Cooperative Act, 1999.