The 26th Annual General Meeting of Gujarat State Co-operative Credit Societies Federation and International National Year of Millets – 2023 were recently held under the chairmanship of Ghanshyambhai Amin, Chairman of the Federation at ” Sahyog ” Ahmedabad. The AGM reverberated with Millets.
Presiding over the meeting, Amin said ” I express sincere feelings of joy and pleasure in welcoming all ladies and gentlemen to the 26th Annual General Meeting of the Federation”, informs a press release. Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendrabhai Modi has formed a new ministry of cooperation with a noble feeling of helping the grassroots people and to achieve the goal of “Prosperity through Cooperation”. The new ministry has pledged to constitute 2 Lacs PACS Societies.
In 2019 the Prime Minister of India had shed light on the Advantages of Millets in the United Nations (UNO). Realising the importance and consumption of the Millets, the UNO had declared the year 2023 as “International Year of the Millets” and now as a part of the ” International Year of the Millets”, the nation is celebrating various events and programs on the Millets, stated Amin.
The Millets are actually a group of cereal grains such as barley, sorghum and ragi, the production and sale of which are encouraged by the govt The Cooperation Ministry says that all the co-operative institutes and credit societies should engage themselves with the promotion of the millets which are nutritious, light in digesting and rich in fibres and vitamins and advantageous for health.
“The farmers do not need fertile land for producing the millets. Further the millets require only less amount of chemical fertilizers and water harvesting. The millet grains are available at good prices and therefore there will be a double increase in the income of the farmers”, Amin said appealing to the co-operative institutes and credit societies to make this information available to their members.
In order to have the experience of the millets to the members, the Federation had prepared and distributed a tool kit of four grains consisting of millet, barley, sorghum and ragi each of 1 kg packets to the members free of charge.
Besides, Amin stated that the Credit Societies will have to be prepared themselves to cater better and speedy services to their members by way of protecting the interest of the depositors through transparency and technology upgradation in their administration.
“They will also have to study and fully implement the circulars issued by the State Registrar from time to time. All the co-operative banks have come under the control of RBI following the enforcing of amendments to the Banking Regulations Act”, Amin said.
In his welcome address, Dileepbhai Patel, Director of the Federation stated that the Federation is progressing day by day under the dynamic leadership of Amin. The members are getting a plethora of information and guidance through the medium of the Federation. He further added that I wholeheartedly welcome all the attendees of this annual general meeting and seminar.
Dushyantsinh Vaghela, Chief Executive Officer of the Federation read out all items on the agenda. Ms Deepsheekha Thakur, Assistant Manager of Gujarat State Co-operative Union, discussed the issues related to millets i. e. rough cereals, their farming, the benefits of their consumption, their delicious recipes etc. in detail.
JJ Shah, the retired Joint Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Gujarat State also discussed the issues related to credit societies and their members and resolution of problems facing them. In this seminar, a booklet containing the information about millets and their recipes was distributed to the members.
