Mangaluru: Sahakari Bhushan award presented to M N Rajendra Kumar by Dharmastala Dharmadhikari Dr D Veerendra Heggade at a grand programme organised at the Nehru Maidan to mark Mr Kumar’s completion of 25 years as the president of South Canara District Central Cooperative (SCDCC) Bank on Saturday Jan 19th.

Dr Heggade said, “The members of the self-help group and cooperative societies should be very proud as their sincere work has led to the empowerment of many. Though some of the members of the group may be illiterates, yet they have the knowledge of handling their financial problems. It was possible only due to their association with the self-help groups,” said Dr Heggade.

No farmer had committed suicide due to financial burden in Dakshina Kannada district so far Mr Kumar said,” The credit must go to the co-operative societies as they provide loans to the farmers and helps them during their financial needs. Unlike in other districts, the farmers in DK district repay their debts on time,” he said.

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers D V Sadananda Gowda spoke on the occasion and said,” In order to achieve self-sufficiency in producing fertilizers and to provide them to the farmers at a very low price, the union government has planned to start a fertilizer plant in Karnataka for which the Karnataka State Marketing Federation President M N Rajendra Kumar has already consented to invest Rs 6,000 crore to start the plant and therefore the state government should allocate proper land for the same,” said DVS.

Many guests to the programme spoke on the occasion including Minister for Urban Development and Housing and DK district in-charge minister U T Khader, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, Minister for Cooperation Bandeep Kashempur, leader of the opposition in Karnataka Legislative Council Kota Srinivas Poojary among others and lauded the efforts of Mr Kumar.

Before the programme a grand procession was taken from the SCDCC bak premises to Nehru Maidan in which scores of people participated.