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`Co-ops must seek tie-up with public, pvt sectors'

Our Bureau

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Jan. 18

THE Managing Director of the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), Mr. P.K. Mishra, has said that it is time co-operatives explored the scope of joint ventures with the private and public sectors if they were to keep pace with the developm ents spawned by the emerging new economic order.

Delivering the keynote address at the 25th meeting of the State-level review and implementation committee on NCDC programmes in Kerala, Mr. Mishra said the co-operatives must cultivate professionalism and take increasing recourse to information technolog y and other modern techniques to help them meet the challenges thrown up by the new millennium.

NCDC is willing to consider hiking the allocation of Rs. 100 crores for the current financial year, if the State Government came up with viable projects.

According to Mr. P. Chellathangam, Deputy Regional Director, NCDC, various developmental programmes involving an expenditure of Rs. 343.79 crores have been implemented in the State so far. New programmes/projects envisaging an expenditure of Rs. 140 cror es have been identified for sanction during the current financial year.

Despite the severe crisis in the State's rubber and coconut plantations, there is tremendous scope for launching rubber and coir-based projects in these sectors and NCDC funds can prove handy in these cases, he added.

Among the six new projects worth Rs. 140 crores identified by the committee for sanction during the current financial year are the integrated powerloom project in Kozhikode (Rs. 33 crores), two rubberised coir products manufacturing units (Rs. 49 crores) and integrated fisheries development projects (Rs. 27.8 crores).