Infrastructure Development Scheme for Dairy Co-operatives

What is the Infrastructure Development Scheme for Dairy Co-operatives?

Infrastructure Development Scheme for Dairy Co-operatives is a grant scheme approved by the Government of Goa and administered through the Department of Co-operation, Office of the Registrar of Co-operative Societies. It exists to solve a problem that limits small dairy societies everywhere in India: the society may collect milk reliably and pay its farmer members fairly, and still be unable to afford a secretary's salary, a rented office, or a bulk milk cooler, because none of those costs can be recovered from a thin margin per litre.

According to the scheme notification published in the Official Gazette by the Goa Government Printing Press, the assistance is provided as a grant or subsidy to meet administrative and managerial expenses, staff salaries and allowances, wages, office expenses, rent, rates and taxes, and the purchase of equipment. The object is to make dairy co-operative societies stable and capable of building better infrastructure, so that their business and allied activities run smoothly.

The distinguishing feature of the scheme is that the grant is graded by daily milk collection, and that societies under the Tribal Sub Plan and Scheduled Caste Sub Plan are on a separate and considerably more generous scale, with finer slabs at lower collection volumes.

This is an institutional scheme. An individual dairy farmer cannot claim under it. The applicant is the registered dairy co-operative society.

Who is eligible for the dairy co-operative grant?

A society can apply if:

• It is a Dairy Co-operative Society in the State of Goa.
• It regularly supplies milk to the Milk Union.
• It has completed one year from the date of its registration.
• It submits the Milk Supply Report from the Milk Union for the period for which assistance is claimed, along with the proposal.
• It has approved the proposal for Government assistance in its General Body or Special General Body before submitting it to the concerned Office of the Assistant Registrar.

Tribal Sub Plan and Scheduled Caste Sub Plan category: a society must have a minimum of 15 percent of its shareholders belonging to the Scheduled Tribe or Scheduled Caste community, as the case may be, to be treated as a Tribal Sub Plan or Scheduled Caste Sub Plan co-operative society for the purpose of this assistance.

You cannot apply if:

• Your co-operative is not a dairy society, or is located outside Goa.
• Your society does not regularly supply milk to the Milk Union. Irregular or discontinued supply removes the basis of the claim.
• Your society has not completed one year since registration.
• You are an individual dairy farmer. The grant funds a society's administrative overheads; there is no personal benefit component. A farmer seeking individual support should approach the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services schemes instead.
• The proposal has not been approved by the General Body or Special General Body. Member approval is a precondition, not a formality to be added later.

How much grant does a dairy society receive?

General category societies

Tribal Sub Plan and Scheduled Caste Sub Plan societies

Two things stand out in this structure. First, the Sub Plan scale reaches much further down in volume. A society collecting just 25 litres a day qualifies for Rs 50,000, whereas the general scale starts only at 50 litres. Second, the Sub Plan rates at comparable volumes are two to three times the general rates, which is a deliberate weighting towards societies in tribal and Scheduled Caste areas where collection volumes are structurally lower.

Permitted uses of the grant: staff salaries and allowances, wages, office expenses, rent, rates and taxes, and equipment. The Registering Authority verifies the utilisation of the grants released, so a society should maintain vouchers and payroll records against each head.

What documents are required?

The Milk Supply Report is the single most consequential document in the file, because it fixes which slab applies. The concerned Assistant Registrar certifies its correctness by verifying it against the society's own records, so the report and the society's ledgers need to agree.

How to apply for the Infrastructure Development Scheme for Dairy Co-operatives

1. Obtain the Milk Supply Report from the Milk Union covering the exact period for which the society is claiming assistance.
2. Convene the General Body or Special General Body and pass a resolution approving the proposal for Government assistance. Record the minutes, which form part of the application.
3. Prepare the proposal in the prescribed application format, attaching the Milk Supply Report, the minutes, the registration certificate, the bank account details, and, for a Tribal Sub Plan or Scheduled Caste Sub Plan claim. The list of Scheduled Tribe or Scheduled Caste members.
4. Submit the proposal to the concerned Office of the Assistant Registrar of Co-operative Societies, along with all the requirements set out in the scheme.
5. Have the Assistant Registrar certify the Milk Supply Report. The Assistant Registrar verifies its correctness against the society's records, which is the step that fixes the grant slab.

What happens after you apply?

The concerned Assistant Registrar certifies the correctness of the Milk Supply Report by verifying the society's records. This certification is what converts the society's claimed collection volume into an admitted one for the purpose of selecting the slab.

The proposal then moves through the Office of the Registrar of Co-operative Societies for sanction, and the grant is released to the society's account.

After release, the Registering Authority verifies the utilisation of the grant. Because the permitted heads are salaries, wages, office expenses, rent, rates, taxes and equipment, the society should be able to produce payroll records, rent receipts, tax challans and equipment invoices matching the amount drawn.

Why proposals get rejected or reduced

• Milk Supply Report period mismatch. The report must cover the exact period for which assistance is claimed. A report for a different window is the most common cause of a returned file.
• Records disagree with the report. The Assistant Registrar certifies the report against the society's own records, and a discrepancy stops the certification.
• No General Body approval. Member approval must precede submission, and the minutes must be on file.
• Under one year since registration. A newly registered society is simply not yet eligible.
• Irregular milk supply. Regular supply to the Milk Union is a continuing condition, not a one-time test.
• Sub Plan claim without the member list. A society claiming the higher Sub Plan rates must document the 15 percent Scheduled Tribe or Scheduled Caste shareholding.
• Utilisation not demonstrated. Failure to satisfy the Registering Authority on how a previous grant was used affects the society's standing for subsequent assistance.

Where to get help

• Office of the Assistant Registrar of Co-operative Societies — your concerned office is the point of submission, the certifying authority for the Milk Supply Report, and the first place to follow up on a pending proposal.
• Office of the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Department of Co-operation, Government of Goa. The department that administers the scheme.
• Official Gazette notification. The full scheme text, including the grant tables, is published by the Goa Government Printing Press at goaprintingpress.gov.in.

There is no application fee. For a society close to a slab boundary, the practical point is that the Milk Supply Report period chosen determines the average daily collection on record, and therefore the grant, so pick the claim period with the society's actual collection pattern in mind.

How to check your application status

This scheme has no online tracking portal. The proposal moves entirely on paper between the concerned Office of the Assistant Registrar and the Office of the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, so status has to be checked by following up directly rather than by logging into a website.

Steps to check where your proposal stands:

1. Note your acknowledgement details before you leave the office. When the society's proposal is submitted, ask the concerned Office of the Assistant Registrar for a receipt or inward diary number. This is the reference the office will use to locate the file later, since the scheme does not issue a separate online application ID.
2. Start with the Assistant Registrar's office, not the Registrar's office. The Assistant Registrar's office is where the file sits first, and where the Milk Supply Report is certified against the society's records. Most delays happen at this certification stage, so this is the first point of follow-up.
3. Ask specifically which stage the file is at: whether the Milk Supply Report has been certified, whether the file has been forwarded to the Office of the Registrar of Co-operative Societies for sanction, or whether the grant has been sanctioned and is pending release to the society's account.
4. Have the society secretary or an office-bearer make the enquiry, not an individual member, since the applicant of record is the society and the office will expect to deal with someone authorised to speak for it. Carry the inward diary number, the period for which assistance was claimed, and a copy of the submitted proposal.
5. If the file has moved to the Office of the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Department of Co-operation, a follow-up there can confirm whether sanction has been issued and when disbursement to the society's bank account is expected.
6. Once the grant is released, check the society's bank account and reconcile the amount against the slab the Milk Supply Report period should have produced, since the Registering Authority will later ask for utilisation records against this same figure.

Because there is no SMS alert, portal login, or helpline number dedicated to this scheme, a society is better off keeping a simple internal log of when the proposal was submitted, when the Milk Supply Report was certified, and when each follow-up call or visit was made, rather than relying on the department to proactively update it.