UNB, Dhaka :Voicing concern at the growing urban-rural income inequalities, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday called for further strengthening the cooperative movement to close the gap between the rich and the poor in the country.”Only the cooperative movement can improve money circulation in rural areas and it’ll help reduce the gap between the rich and the poor,” she said.The Prime Minister was addressing the inaugural function of the 43rd National Cooperatives Day organised at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC).Hasina laid emphasis on bringing further momentum in the country’s cooperative movement saying that now time has come to involve the cooperative in the mainstream of development with a well-thought-out plan.Referring to high-rise buildings in urban areas decorated with imported furniture and lightings, she said many people in the country have nowhere to take shelter. “They’ve to live an inhuman life alongside roads and railways. Why there should be such differences in society…we have to remove that,” she said.Hasina said, the money circulation in rural areas have to be increased to strengthen the backbone of the rural economy. “We’ve to create opportunities in rural areas so that the villagers could market their products and produces at fair prices, and that could be done through the cooperative movement.”Recalling the contributions of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman towards developing the cooperative movement, the Prime Minister said Bangabandhu had given constitutional recognition to cooperative that organises people enabling them to solve problems in a coordinated manner.After coming to power in 1996, she her government had started undertaking various cooperative based measures for the welfare of people, including Asrayan Project, and provided housing facilities to the homeless poor as well as created self-employment opportunities through imparting trainings.Assuming office in 2009, Sheikh Hasina said, her government again took steps to strength the cooperatives and gave priority to it to take the country forward.The Prime Minister said, her government has also formulated the amended Cooperative Act in 2013 to make the law more time befitting as well as the Cooperative Policy 2012 to undertake various cooperative-based development activities.Hasina said, the rural economy would have witnessed marked changes if various products could have been sold through the network of cooperative-dependent markets.Cooperative societies have been formed in 66 upazilas of the country which will be expanded to every upazilas in phases, she told her audience laying emphasis on reorganising the cooperative societies through turning them into multipurpose ones.Hasina said, the country has got a great prospect for cooperative-based production, processing, value addition and marketing of agriculture and non-agriculture produces, including fish, meat, vegetables and handicrafts, which are needed every day.Held with Rural Development and Cooperative Division secretary MA Quader Sarker in the chair, the function was addressed, among others, by LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam and State Minister Mashiur Rahman Ranga.Later, the Prime Minister handed over the National Cooperative Awards 2012 to nine cooperative organisations and a cooperator in 10 categories in recognition of their contribution. Each recipient was given a Gold Medal weighing 10 grams 18 carat gold and a certificate.Earlier, a documentary was also screened on ‘Cooperatives on Socioeconomic Safety’.
