The
Industrial Cooperative wing of Madurai district
has 18 registered Industrial Cooperative societies.
For the purpose of registration of the cooperative
societies, the General Manager, District Industries
Centre has powers delegated by the Industries
Commissioner and Director of Industries and Commerce
who is the Functional Registrar for the Industrial
cooperative Societies. The trades and production
carried on by the societies in Madurai district
range from production of coir fibres & coir yarns
to service to small scale industrial units, service
to auto drivers and printers. There is a cooperative
industrial estate also.
The societies command a total sale turn over of
a little over one crore rupees (2008-09). They
function with the total paid up share capital
of Rs. 67.76 lakhs, of which the Government of
Tamil Nadu has contributed Rs.24.63 lakhs.
The Coir workers industrial cooperative societies
are located in Pallapatti and Kondayampatti and
employ about 50 workers from rural area directly
and indirectly. The Pallapatti coir workers society
ltd, started in 1982, is producing coir fibres
and coir yarns with machinery such as decordicators,
automatic yarn spinning units etc. It stands to
be a demonstrative evidence to show that the cooperatives
can function to provide sustained employment to
the poor in the rural area where the agriculture
venture does not help sufficiently.
The Southern Regional SSI Service Industrial cooperative
society ( started in 1974), renders service to
Small Scale Industrial units for over 3 decades.
It has diversified its activities by fabrication
and construction works of different kinds through
its members and is also running an electronic
lorry weigh bridge at Kappalaur. It strives to
open a cold storage facility in the Kappalur industrial
estate.