Case: ADIMPUR GRAM VIKAS SAHAKARI MANDALI.
The Situation:
Gramin Vikash Agency(GVA) is a NGO headquartered in Nilang. Shri Shiv Raman is the program coordinator, Shri Bhimbhai Amin, Programme Organiser (Watershed evelopment) and Shri G Krishnaswamy, Programme Organiser (People’s Organisation). The Mandali was a rural people’s organization registered under the Co-operative Societies and was sponsored by a voluntary agency, GVA . Adimpur Gram Vikas Sehkari mandali of mandali was to promote all-round development of Adimpur village by financially and technically helping its members to take up income generating activities, both individually as well as on a community basis. As of July 2007, the Mandali had a total membership of 176. As of June 2007, the GVA had invested over Rs. 26.50 lakhs in its plantation project covering an area of 312 ha of degraded forest and revenue lands in Adimpur and two other neighbouring villages. All benefits from the plantation were to accrue to the Mandali. The Mandali had also created a common fund by pooling the amount that it received on account of commission on the supply of agricultural inputs to it members and marketing of their produce, and the interest earned from the advance of loans to its members. In addition, earnings from the operation of a seed bank in earlier years and from the sale of grass from the plantation area were also added to the common fund.
Till March 2007, every member used to save Rs. 40 , But from April 2007, the wage rate had increased the saving rate to Rs. 60. The individual savings were held together by the Mandali in a fixed deposit account 2007, the Mandali had accumulated in its members’ savings fund a sum of Rs. 16.50 lakhs The Mandali did not have any authority to decide about the uses of the members’ savings. Each of the members of the Mandali was eligible for a loan upto 75 percent of his accumulated savings provided he had repaid to the Mandali all previous loans. The existing...