The Indian Navy Civil Employees Co-operative Society which today stood second among the Co-operative societies in Visakhapatnam with 9627 members is relentlessly engaged in serving the financial needs of the members. While the society was established in July, 1955 with the efforts of Late Sri.Y.Jagannadham, Secretary; Late Sri.Vanka Thathayya, Treasurer and LCDR Srinivas, President with an initial membership of Thirty(30), its services were expanded only when Sri.T.V.Rajagopalan (First CGO, SO(Civ) of ENC) became its President in 1958. After the 1971 Indo-Pak war, the significance of the Eastern Naval Command reached new heights and the Government took speedy steps for its development. Thousands of new recruits joined in service during the decades of 1970 & 1980. The Society which was supposed to grow by absorbing new members, was fallen in deep crisis and lost even those people who were already in the Co-operative movement
The allegation of misappropriation of Society funds by the Manager in 1972-73 has lead to difference of opinion between the management of Eastern Naval Command and the Society's governing body. As the management did not appointed the President, there was nobody to regulate and control the activities of the governing members and as a result, some of the staff colluding with the governing members, misappropriated the funds of the Society, which was not even traced out by the Audit. When the elected body of 1980 made the re-audit of Society's Accounts since 1975-76, the irregularities were traced out which led to court cases between staff and governing body.
Due to these irregularities and court cases, members have left the society and no new member has joined. The income of the Society drastically fallen as DCCB did not given loans. As a result, the society incurred heavy losses to a tune of Rs.18 lakhs and it reached the verge of closure by 1984-85. During this period, gross anomalies, such as non-stoppage of recovery from salary even after completion of loan amount; forceful recovery from salary of the member by not accepting his resignation; non-payment of interest on Thrift Deposit which was legally due to members; were cropped up
In this background, the then leadership of the Union met the District Collector, Co-operative Department, Dist. Co-operative Bank and the management of Eastern Naval Command, explained them the feelings of the members and impressed upon them the need of rejuvenating the Society. Because of these efforts Dist. Co-operative Bank agreed to render financial assistance, Co-operative Department assured to take action against the persons responsible for misappropriation and the ENC management agreed to nominate the President. There after the New body and the newly nominated President took the charge and initiated steps for better function of the Society
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Though the activities of the Society were renewed by late 80s it could not able to attract the workers due to prevalent corruption in the society. The New body which took the reigns of the Society in 1990 campaigned systematically amongst the workers, the necessity of the Co-operative Society and the importance of Co-operative movement. It has initiated steps to check corruption; payment of interest on Thrift Deposits as per by-laws; free hand to members either to join or to resign from the society etc., Thus the new body could able to create confidence on the Society and motivated the members to participate actively in the activities of the Society.
By all these efforts the picture of the society completely changed. Instead of leaving the society, the members encouraged other workers to join the society and as such the membership increased from 2300 in 1990 to 8789 by 1996 and to 10456 as on today. The society within three years has recovered from the losses which were haunting since 1975-76 and started earning profit. With an aim of reducing the dependence of members on Central Co-operative Bank for disbursement of loans, Society started accepting R.D.s and F.Ds from members by offering 3% higher rate of interest than various commercial banks and the response from members is quite encouraging. And made the society self sustaining and made it possible to lend loans at a lower rate of interest when compared to Commercial Banks.
As per the preliminary survey of the Society, workers and staff of Eastern Naval Command are having deposits in commercial banks. Common funds such as DCRB, TB fund etc. worth several lakhs of rupees were invested outside. Steps were taken to create confidence among the employees, so that they can deposit those amounts in our Society
Steps such as, intimating the members regularly about the financial position of the society, taking their suggestion and advises, using the updated technology, keeping all the information available to the members, making the staff and governing body of the society responsible to the members, protecting the internal democracy and motivating the members to participate actively, keeping vigilance on corrupt practices etc., which were being implemented since 1990 should be continued with more zeal. It will create confidence on the society and will protect from all evils
We must specially acknowledge the help rendered by the cooperative department and Dist. Co-operative Central Bank while reviewing out 40 years of history. When the society came to a verge of closure in 1980 decade, the help rendered by cooperative department, District Co-operative Central Bank and the discharge of its duty by Naval administration, enabled the society to survive. At this juncture we must pay our special thanks to them.
We must learn lessons from our history and take all precautions to stop the recurrence of the mistakes occurred in 1970 decade. Members are the pillars of the Co-operative movement and they are key for the survival and development of the society. The awareness of the members is a safe-guard for the society. Hence let us appeal to the members-please keep vigilance with thousand eyes and protect it. The society is ours. Let us go together and enjoy the benefits together
