TRYST IN BUILDING TRUST:
The story of the society isn’t a rosy one all through.
The society has come through a number of trysts with faith and
self-belief right from its founding days. This is a story that
began when Sri A.K. Vishwanadha Reddy, the Founder of the society
went around in the villages with nothing but his reputation
and sincerity to stake as equity when he wanted cash equity
for his plans and visions to take shape.
But as it is with great success stories, magically he not
only succeeded in getting contributions for the society’s
seed equity but also got a much more important ingredient
to start a co-operative. The blessings of his “elder
brother” farmers. Thus the society was born with just
375 members and a minuscule share capital of less than Rs.
2300.00. Thereafter, the society has faced a number of problems
and a number of vicissitudes. But when one looks back today,
they just seem like trysts in building trust, guided of course
by the Founder’s vision and backed by those who believed
in it.
The society started on it mission in a small way by disbursing
short-term crop loans. Thereafter, it moved on to disbursing
medium-term loans for pumpsets and electrification in 1957-58.
It was around this time that Sri A.K. Vishwanadha Reddy’s
whole-hearted participation in all the society affairs and
his far-seeing sagacity ensured that the society developed
the right character. And came to be seen as an institution
that will help but never dole out funds, an institution that
will not just preach thrift but literally live by the credo.
In the next 20 years, even while the co-operative movement
was losing steam in the rest of the country and most co-operatives
were grappling with legal and political issues of one or the
other kind, the society literally marched on from strength
to strength, increasing its equity, acquiring all required
stock and of course disbursing every conceivable loan to its
members.
It wasn’t that there were no hurdles even in these
golden days. Sri A.K. Vishwanadha Reddy had to deal with a
number of revolts and mini-revolts against his patriarchal
style of functioning. But being the visionary he was, he took
them in his stride, even relinquishing charge of the society
when he thought it was right. And in his own far-seeing way
he had built a society where no member was bigger than the
society, one where merit mattered more than anything else.
So it was but natural that he was again asked to take charge.
Naturally again all this happened in the most democratic manner!
The biggest setback that the society has ever faced was Sri
A.K. Vishwanadha Reddy Gaaru’s untimely demise. But
then, the show had to go on, life had to go on, the fields
had to be sown and tended to for the farmers to harvest their
way of life, so a successor had to be found. And as again,
the Founder had already seen ahead and planned ahead for the
society. Mr. Praveen Reddy was ready to take over as he had
been educated and groomed and trained to lead the society
into the next generation.
But yet, even now, at the society or in any of the 14 villages
around, one cannot miss the presence of Sri A.K. Vishwanadha
Reddy. Not as the shadow of a man who built the society or
established its values, but as a divine personification of
all that is good about it, the presiding deity in this "temple
of trust".
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