KOHIMA — The minister of PHED and Cooperation, Jacob Zhimomi, on Wednesday inaugurated a newly constructed directorate building of Registrar of Cooperative Societies in Meriema under Kohima district.
Speaking on the occasion, Zhimomi has termed the new infrastructure as one of the best in Kohima run by the government of Nagaland. He added that the department is set to play a very crucial role for the middle and lower class family of the state.
“It was discussed to take the department forward to cater to the people so that maximum benefit goes to the local entrepreneurs especially those who do small scale business and give them big boost through the diversification process,” Zhimomi said.
Saying that there are more than 8000 cooperative societies in the state, he stated that the department is going through a purification process as to which society is actually operating.
Observing that many cooperative societies are functioning through private banks, he encouraged to promote the Nagaland State Cooperative Bank saying that it is the only government bank.
'We should be promoting our own bank as there will be no progress if we don’t support our one and only Nagaland State Cooperative Bank,' he said and appealed to all the cooperative society to actively participate and operate through the state government bank.
In Nagaland, cooperatives movement is ‘very silent,’ Zhimomi observed while adding that there are many scope to go ahead through cooperative movement. He expressed hope that Nagas, through the cooperative movement, would be able to upgrade their socio-economic conditions.
Abija Khing, executive engineer of PWD Housing Division- I, Kohima, informed that the work order for the building was issued in 2012. He stated it took 12 years to complete. According to him, the delay was caused due to technical clearances from the government.
He added that despite non clearance from the government, the contractor went ahead with the work and could complete 80% of the works in 2019-2020. In November 2020, the due clearance was given to complete the project at the total cost of INR 19.31 crore.
Earlier, Zhimomi unveiled the plague of the building.