DHAKA, Nov 06, 2020 (BSS) -The 49th National Cooperatives Day will be observed in the country tomorrow under the auspices of the Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Ministry.
The theme of day this year is ‘Philosophy of Bangabandhu, Development in Cooperatives’.
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today issued separate messages greeting all co-operators on the eve of the day.
President Abdul Hamid, in his message, said that the cooperatives are playing important roles in women empowerment, including rural poverty alleviation, new employment generation, marketing the commodities and ensuring fair price of the goods.
Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had recognized the cooperatives as one of the best weapons for the development, said the President.
He (Bangabandhu) had also dreamt of a pro-people cooperatives movement for improving the fate of the poor and under privileged people, Abdul Hamid added.
The President urged all people to be more active and sincere to make the cooperatives activities more vibrant, active and time-befitting in order to turn Bangladesh into a prosperous nation.
Highlighting different aspects of the cooperatives, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, in her message, that the cooperatives are playing important roles in the socio-economic development of the country.
The premier said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman recognized co-operatives as the second sector of property ownership in Article 13 (b) of the Constitution and called for turning co-operatives into a people-oriented movement.
In order to meet the nutritional needs of the people of the country, the dairy industry development project called ‘Cooperative Dairy Project’ was taken in 1973 to set up milk processing factories in five milk producing areas, she said.
Today’s ‘Milk Vita’ is the product of Bangabandhu far-reaching initiatives, she continued.
Following the footsteps of the father of the nation, the Awami League-led government is working intensively for rural development along with poverty alleviation through cooperatives, she added.
“We established the Bangabandhu Poverty Alleviation Training Complex in 1997 and later transformed the training center into a full-fledged academy by enacting a law in 2012,” she said.
She further added that the government formulated the Rural Poverty Alleviation Foundation Act, 1999.
The government has formulated the Co-operative Societies Act-2001 and the National Co-operative Policy, 2012, she said, adding that then the government re-enacted the Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2013 and the Bangladesh Rural Development Board Act, 2018.
After assuming office in 2009, the Awami League-led government adopted the Amar Bari Amar Khamar Project, she said.
At present, 1 lakh 21 thousand 142 cooperative societies have been formed under this project where the beneficiary member families are 56 lakh 41 thousand, she added.
The premier believed that cooperatives will play an important role in meeting the challenge of implementing the promise of ‘Amar Gram, Amar Shohor’ declared in the party’s election manifesto.
“We have increased the budget in the co-operative sector, provided training to the co-operators, and made progress in improving the quality of life and social life of the co-operators, including poverty alleviation through financial and material assistance,” she continued.
“Due to our efforts, the number of co-operative societies and co-operatives has increased day by day and now the number of co-operative societies has increased to 1,90,534 and the number of members to 1,14,83,747,” she added.
On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, various cooperatives-based development projects have been taken by the present government.
The day will be observed amid holding of different programmes.
The department of cooperatives has chalked out elaborate programmes to observe the day in a befitting manner.
The day will also be observed at upazila, district and divisional levels in a befitting manner.