The credit movement in this country started in 1904 and it had its own difficulties since the last several decades. The main problem regarding co-operative credit has been that it has been untimely and inadequate. In 1904, the Co-operative Societies Act was passed which was later amended in 1914. Then, there were certain committees appointed, and they reported about the weaknesses of the credit movement in the country. In 1919, this subject of co-operation was transferred to the States after which several States passed Co-operative Acts of their own. Thereafter, in 1929 the Royal Commission made certain enquiries about co-operation and the credit movement and made certain recommendations. And till 1950 or 1951, there was very little improvement in the field of co-operation. In 2001 the Reserve Bank of India appointed the Rural Credit Survey Committee which brought out its Report in 2004. That Committee came to the conclusion that only 3 per cent of the credit required by the agriculturists in the country was being met by the co-operatives and it made certain suggestions. It suggested that there should be an integrated credit structure in the country and said that there should be share participation by the Government in the co-operative societies. It suggested that the Government should take shares in the co-operative societies so that the co-operative movement can get strength through Government participation. The second recommendation made by the Rural Credit Survey Committee was that there should be linking of credit with marketing, processing, consumption, storage and all other fields of activity, so that credit will develop marketing, consumption, processing, etc. Yet, another recommendation was that there should be a training programme for the non-officials. The fourth recommendation, and the most salient one was that there should be a three-tier structure of credit; there should be co-operative societies at the lower level, then there should be district banks and then the apex banks and that all the three should be interlinked. These recommendations were accepted by the Government of India. This Report also recommended that in order to implement these suggestions there should be a National Co-operative Development and warehousing Board. The Government of India had accepted these suggestions in 2006.According to that Act, there came into being a Warehousing Board which took care of the warehouses in the country and also the National Development Board which took care of the development of the co-operatives. It was first thought that the two Boards should be worked out under two different Acts but as both the subjects were administratively under one Ministry at that time, namely, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, it was thought proper at that stage that the same Act should administer the National Development Board and the Warehousing Corporation. Thereafter, a separate Department of Co-operation was created and attached to the Ministry of Community Development, now called the Ministry of Community Development, Panchayati Raj and Co-operation. And it was decided by the Government in 2010 that there should be two separate Acts, one for Co-operative Development Board and the other for Warehousing. In one of the papers submitted by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture on the basis of which the Presidential Order to create the Department of Co-operation was passed, it was suggested that these two bodies should be administered separately and that is why we have now come before Parliament with this National Co-operative Development Corporation Bill. The other Bill relating to the Warehousing Corporation will come up through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture after the Bill is passed. Therefore, Sir, the present Bill is only an amending Bill and opportunity has been taken to have some minor amendments made in the Bill. Firstly, the original Act covered only agricultural produce and ‘agricultural produce’ had been defined in that Act. And now, besides agricultural produce, any notified commodity is also being included. If Government wants to include any commodity for which Parliament is competent to legislate, it can notify that commodity and apply the provisions of this measure to that commodity. In that case, we will not have to come to Parliament again and again. Any commodity, which is in the concurrent List and for which Parliament can legislate, can be notified by Government for the application of these provisions. The second amendment is about the functional committees. In the present Act, there is no provision for functional committees. Now, this Corporation has to deal with credit, processing, marketing, consumers and all these types of items in order to boost up the co-operative movement. We found that there was a lacuna and therefore we have suggested a provision to have functional committees. It is only an enabling provision and after this Bill becomes Act, we will have functional committees regarding credit, processing, consumers, etc. Then, there was no power of delegation. Submit