By Our Correspondent
Kathmandu, Apr. 4: Former Finance Minister Surendra Pandey has stressed on the need to be productive by abandoning the idea of selling agricultural land to keep money in the bank and making a living from its interest.

Speaking at the concluding day of 'Jhapa Co-operative Conference 2078' on Sunday, he said that the practice of taking jobs, taking interest and taking rent should be abandoned.
Stating that there is a lack of planned work culture, he said that there is an immense potential in the field of production even now when working with a plan. Cooperatives can do a lot in the field of production, Pandey said.

Similarly, Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation of Province 1 Om Prakash Sarawagi said that cooperatives have contributed to the economic development, and the government is ready to address the problems of the cooperative sector.
He requested the cooperative sector to be involved in the productive sector and said that the province government was always ready to facilitate it.

Likewise, Sarawagi emphasised on making cooperatives commercial and professional. "Now every cooperative should be linked with agriculture, trade and industry. You should work to change the perception that cooperatives are only buying and selling money," he said.

According to Ganesh Dhakal, chairman of the Jhapa District Cooperative Association, the two-day Jhapa Co-operative Conference has ended with the announcement of 'Jhapa Declaration' on Sunday. He also said that they are focusing on the solutions to the existing problems in the cooperatives.

The issues included in the declarations include making the cooperative sector policy, method and technology friendly, developing relationship between cooperative movement and organisations, playing a coordinating role in orienting cooperative business in production, marketing and chain of entrepreneurship, effective implementation of institutional development, financial management and good governance in the organization.

Similarly, the declaration announces to take initiative to make all the existing cooperative acts, laws and the provisions of the law, including the reference interest rate, cooperative friendly, to lobby for the realisation of the contribution of cooperatives in the national economy and to include them in the national census, and to ensure full security of business of the organisation.