Self-reliant Co-operative Society is Our Top Priority: Kalon Tripa

Saturday, 24 November 2007, 11:50 a.m.

The 5-day 7th annual agriculture and cooperative development conference organised by the Department of Home, Central Tibetan Administration underway at the staff cafeteria, Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamshala (Photo: Sangjey Kep)

The settlement officers from 18 major Tibetan agriculture settlements, president of the Federation of Tibetan Cooperatives in India Ltd (FTCIL), presidents and secretaries from 15 Tibetan co-operative societies are attending the 5-day conference.

Outlining the importance of becoming more self-reliant, he urged the FTCIL to organise and administer the future annual conferences independently without depending on the home department.

"If required, the Home Department will provide some financial assistance and send resource persons for the future conferences" he added.

"Gradually you will gain experiences and be able stand on your own feet," he added.

To get a first hand knowledge of the problems and the situation in the settlements, he said, "The future cooperative and agriculture conferences should be convened in one of the settlements in turn."

He further said, His Holiness the Dalai Lama established and registered agricultural settlementsand co-operative societies, with his vision that agriculture development is the key to long-term economic self-sufficiency and prosperity of Tibetans.

It is the vision of His Holiness to make every Tibetan community more self reliant, he said, adding that it is our bounden duty to work for the long-term stability and development of our community.

He told the gathering that for making cooperative societies more viable, they should be able to obtain beneficial facilities provided by the Indian government.

Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche addressing on the inaugural session of the conference yesterday

While recounting the lack of a proper guidance to administer some cooperatives that nearly became bankrupt, he said, " Under the 12th Kashag, policy and guidelines were formulated to lay strong emphasis on organic farming and to make cooperatives more self reliant."

"He further said, "To establish a sustainable and self-reliant cooperatives, the home department has been spending a large amount of money to train Tibetans in cooperative management studies."

He outlined that special emphasis on appointing cooperative secretaries who have training and expertise in cooperative management should be strengthened.

In his introductory address, the acting secretary of the Home Department, Mr Ngodup Dorjee, said that the participants must come with valuable suggestions for enhancing agriculture and cooperative development in their respective settlements.

The acting secretary of the Department of Home, Mr Ngodup Dorjee (standing at the extreme left) addressing the conference

While saying that this conference is a platform to bring about agriculture and co-operative developments, he said, composite ideas and suggestions will result in the common goal for making further progress in these two sectors.

Learning from the past experience in substantive development in agriculture and cooperative sector within 6 rounds of meetings, he urged the participants to take maximum participation in the meeting to bring about positive ideas and suggestions.

He said, to tackle varied administrative problems faced in co-operative societies, 5 annual conferences were successfully convened with an initial participation of 5 agricultural settlements located in South India between 1985 to 1997.

With a gradual progress in overall administrative development of the cooperatives, the membership was enlarged with the participation of 3 more settlements in 1997 and further increased to 12 settlements till 1999, he said.

The annual working report and financial statements of Tibetan cooperative societies and agriculture settlements will be discussed during first three-day session.

The review of the resolutions passed during the 6th annual meeting held in Ladakh last year is on the agenda.

Workshop on organic farming will be organised by an Italian NGO, Co-operation for the Development of Emerging Countries (COSPE) on the last day of the conference on 27 November.

  (www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)

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