Addressing co-operators during a media conclave in Pune, Union Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah listed various new initiatives in the cooperative sector and said that the data of the entire co-op sector except that from West Bengal is in his laptop. He said that an ambitious plan to ensure ubiquitous presence of co-ops across states is in the making.
Shah was speaking as the Chief Guest in the two-day Sahakar Sammelan organized by Dainik Sakal Group where CM Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, among others were present. Besides the new initiatives launched by his ministry, Shah also cautioned co-operators and said that the cooperative sector will have to self-introspect on its performance and increase its credibility. He said that the cooperative sector should improve its systems and take up its responsibilities.
Shah said that the cooperative sector of Maharashtra is strong as out of about 8.5 lakh cooperative societies in the country, 2 lakh are in here. Listing details he said 67% of the country’s residential cooperative societies, 35% of livestock societies, 27% of sugar cooperative societies, 16% of marketing societies, 14% of fishery industry societies and 11% of food processing societies are in Maharashtra.
“In addition, Maharashtra has 21 percent of the country’s PACS, and 32 percent of the total urban banks which means 490 banks are in Maharashtra, along with 6529 bank branches are here which is 60 percent of the country’s total branches. This means that cooperatives are a major strength of Maharashtra. Maharashtra has deposits of about Rs 3.25 lakh crore through Urban Cooperative Banks, which is 62 percent of the total urban bank deposits in the country”, said Shah underlining he has all details now.
Shah felt that the co-op sector in the country cannot be strengthened until PACS are revitalized. He said that the Government led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has decided to computerize the country’s 63,000 PACS and along with this, the new model bylaws of PACS have been prepared and sent to the states, in which provision has been made to make PACS multi-purpose.
He said the recent Cabinet has agreed to make Multidimensional PACS in every Panchayat and now 2 lakh new PACS will be made in India in 3 years, after which PACS will be available in every Panchayat of the country.
Listing the co-op sector’s contributions to the economy, Shah informed its share in various fields such as fertilizer, rural credit, sugar etc. In his address, the Union Cooperation Minister said that the Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will make every possible effort to solve the problems of the cooperative sector.
Shah also listed recent developments such as PACS being given the task of CSC (Common Service Center) and Co-op being given to procure and sell through the GeM portal. He said that to give a strong base to this entire process, a cooperative policy will have to be formulated and for this a committee has been formed which will prepare the draft cooperative policy in a short span of time. He said that the new cooperative policy will decide the direction of cooperatives in the country for the next 20 years.
