‘Will take steps to hike quota for women, SC/STs in co-ops’

 The state government would take steps to increase quota for women and SC/STs in co-operative societies in the upcoming Assembly session in December, said co-operation minister B G Puttaswamy.

 He was speaking at a celebration of the 59th year of the Karnataka State Co-operative Housing Federation Limited here on Sunday.

 He said that the reservation percentage would be increased from 9 per cent to 15 per cent.

 “The Centre has implemented this through the 97th amendment to the Constitution and we shall also do the same,” he added.

 He praised the co-operative movement in the state and said that 3.27 lakh new members have been added in the past one year. “Our target is to give loans to 19 lakh farmers this year at 3 per cent interest. In the past 5 months, we have given loans to 8.3 lakh members out of which 90.3 per cent applicants were small scale farmers,” he added.

 Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwar praised the KSCHF for posting a profit of 6 crore for the year. “Last year, their profit was Rs 1.5 crore, which they increased to 6 crore without any formal training. This is a major achievement,” he said.

 Parameshwar also lashed out at the Indian Administrative Service and said that government institutions under IAS officers are posting huge losses even though the officials were trained in management.

 “These IAS and IPS officers have brought these companies to a level where privatisation is being considered. In such a scenario, what the KSCHF has achieved is laudable,” he said.