New Delhi, July 6 (Mayank Nigam) Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Saturday said that in the next five years a strong foundation of cooperation will be laid so that it impacts every village and household for the next 125 years. Addressing the ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi’ (Prosperity through Cooperation) programme organised on the occasion of 102nd International Day of Cooperatives in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, Shah said, “Today we are at an important juncture and the 125 years old cooperative movement is making a big contribution in various areas of the country”.
He said that the cooperative sector is contributing 20 percent in the distribution of agricultural loans, 35 percent in the distribution of fertilizers,21 percent in production, 31 percent in sugar production, 13 percent in the purchase of wheat and 20 percent in the purchase of paddy, an official statement said here. The cooperative sector is making a very important contribution in the rural and agricultural economy, Shah added. The Minister said the only objective behind the mantra of ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi’ given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to bring confidence, happiness and prosperity in the lives of 30-crore people who are backward even after 75 years of independence. Amit Shah said that the Modi government has come up with two new schemes through cooperatives and the government has taken important steps to promote Ethanol and for the prosperity of the farmers producing Maize. The government have made arrangements that two big cooperative institutions of the government will buy Maize produced by the farmers online at the minimum support price (MSP) and Ethanol will be made from it, he asserted.
Adding that this will not only make the farmers prosperous but will also help in increasing the country’s foreign exchange reserves by reducing the import of Petrol. Shah said that similarly, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and consumer cooperative institutions will also procure four types of pulses at 100 percent MSP. “If we do all the economic transactions within the cooperative sector itself, then we will not need to bring a single penny from outside the cooperative sector,” the Home Minister said. The Minister of Cooperation urged National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and all the State Cooperative Banks across the country that every Primary Agriculture Credit Society (PACS) and other cooperative institutions should open their account in the District Cooperative Bank or State Cooperative Bank, which will not only strengthen the cooperative sector but will also increase capital and confidence.
He said that the Cooperation Ministry has taken many important steps for the cooperative sector and the government has set a target that there should not be any state or district in the country where there is not a viable district cooperative bank and a viable district milk producer union. Shah said that the government has set a target that in the next five years it will work to create multipurpose PACS in two lakh panchayats. Adding that the government has also made model bylaws for PACS and despite PACS being a state subject, every state from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Assam to Dwarka has accepted these model bylaws. He called upon the workers of the cooperative sector across the country to make cooperatives a strong pillar of the country’s economy.