History and development of cooperative department in Tamilnadu
The Government of Madras presidency had appointed P.Rajagoplachari as the first Registrar of cooperative societies in the year 1904. The Government order appointing P.Rajagopalachari as the Registrar is the first day of the cooperative department. He served as the Registrar from 1904 to 1907. He was the only officer appointed for the department initially. Later on when the activities of the department had increased Senior Inspectors had been appointed to assist him, the first Senior Inspector appointed was Mr.Deivasigmani Mudaliar.
During the year 1908 to 1909, office of the Registrar functioned with a Deputy Collector as his assistant on Foreign Service terms. In the year 1910-10 there was three Deputy Collectors working in the department. In the year 1920 Assistant Registrar was appointed as Personal Assistant to the Registrar as per GO No 135 (Revenue special) dated 20/1/1920.
In 1920s practice of appointing persons of high repute as Honorary Assistant Registrars in the department was followed, they were not paid for their job and 46 such officers were working in that time.
In 1920, the post of Joint Registrar was created s per the GO No.2234 dated 16/12/1920. In the year 1921-22, 6 new Assistant Registrar were recruited to replace the existing Deputy Collectors/ Assistant Registrars who were paid high salaries. In the year 1924-25 many new posts were created in the office of the Registrar and for regions and lot of new recruitment were carried out.
Townsend committee
As per the recommendations of the committee in the year 1929, the number of post of Deputy Registrar’s was increased to 21 and a Deputy Registrar was appointed to monitor the cooperative activities of the district in the year 1942.
The first Senior Inspector Mr.Deivasigamani Mudaliar, became the Registrar of Cooperative societies on promotion, likewise, the officers of the cooperative department Mr.J.C.Rayan, A.Palaniyappa Mudaliar, V.K.Appandarajan, D.A.S.Prakasam and T.M.Arumugam was also promoted to the post of Registrars over the years.
In the year 1966, five new regions were created at Madras, Trichy, Thanjavur, Salem and Thirunelveli and Joint Registrar’s were appointed at the head of the region. Each region consists of 3-4 districts.”
