Exhorting co-operators to exploit opportunities unleashed by the pro-cooperative approach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said never ever in the 75-long history of free India existed such a favourable ecosystem for the growth of co-ops.
Shah was addressing the delegates of co-op credit banks at Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi on Friday where he said under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Government of India has taken a very important decision by creating the Ministry of Cooperation. He said keeping in mind the cooperative picture of the entire country, the Ministry of Cooperation can do much by taking the States along in the spirit of cooperatives.
Shah said along with strengthening the agriculture credit framework, it also needs to be reformed. There is a need to work on taking cooperatives to every sector and agricultural credit should only be available through this.
“Today Shri Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister and there can be no better time than now to expand the cooperative sector and make it prosperous. Shri Shah said the vision of the Prime Minister is to bring inclusive economic growth by involving the poorest person and the economic development of the poorest person and this can only be undertaken by the cooperative sector”, underlined Shah.
The Union Home and Cooperation Minister said there are about 8.5 lakh cooperative societies in the country, out
of which there are 1.78 lakh different types of credit societies. In the field of agricultural credit, there are 34 state cooperative banks with more than 2,000 branches, 351 district cooperative banks with 14,000 branches and about 95,000 PACS.
If we look at all these together, then we can see that those who built the cooperative sector have left a strong base and there should be a resolve to build a stronger structure on this foundation in the year of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
