Port Blair, Nov 14: The celebrations of 59th All India Cooperative Week-2012 has started in these Islands alongwith rest of the country with the unfurling of seven-coloured Cooperative Flag on 14thNovember 2012 in the premises of Andaman & Nicobar State Cooperative Union at Taylorabad, South Andaman by Shri Rupesh Kumar Thakur, Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman District- who also graced the inaugural seminar organised on ‘Cooperative Enabling Legislation including Direct Tax Code Bill’ as the Chief Guest. The Chief Guest also garlanded a portrait of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of our country as his birthday also coincides with the inaugural day of each Cooperative Week. The traditional lamp was also lit by the Chief Guest.
Welcoming the gathering, Shri Kuldeep Rai Sharma, Chairman, Andaman & Nicobar State Cooperative Union highlighted on the programme(s) to be organised during the week-long celebrations of 59th All India Cooperative Week-2012 and informed that people’s awareness is created through such celebrations. He emphasized on people’s awareness about ‘cooperation’ inasmuch as in the present days of unemployment, ‘cooperation’ is the only medium open to the isles’ youth to find some earnings for them.The Chief Guest Shri Rupesh Kumar Thakur, Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman District applauded the efforts made by the Andaman & Nicobar State Cooperative Union for organizing the 59th All India Cooperative Week-2012 from 14thNovember 2012 onwards in these Islands in a befitting manner. He said that the idea of ‘cooperative movement’ was the brain-child of Mahatma Gandhi – who gave thrusts upon ‘co-operation’ and ‘co-ordination’ to be made among the people of India, so that the country may flourish and prosper. Now, the Chief Guest added, we have to carry forward the baton of the idea on ‘cooperativemovement’ which the Father of the Nation has left behind for us. He further expressed his pleasure over smooth functioning of the A&N State Cooperative Bank Ltd., a glorious financial institution in the ‘cooperative sector’ of A&N Islands, in far flung areas of this union territory, particularly for functioning in those remotest places – where no commercial Banks have yet ventured to open their Branch(es).
Others who spoke on the occasion include Shri S. Suresh Babu, Principal, Rajiv Gandhi Cooperative Training College, run and managed by the A&N State Cooperative Union and Shri Ravinder Rao, Managing Director, Andaman & Nicobar State Cooperative Bank Ltd.
