Cooperation among co-ops will ensure autonomy for sector: Shah

Speaking on the occasion of 42nd Foundation Day of Nabard, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah primarily raised two major issues– one, NABARD should work in a mission mode and two, there should be Cooperation among cooperatives.

The event was held at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on Wednesday where Minister of State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation, Gyanesh Kumar, NABARD Chairman Shaji K V were also present. Notable co-operators including Nafed Chairman Bijender Singh, Nafcard Chairman Dollar Kotecha, Nafscob MD Bhima Subrahmanyam and several chairman of DCCBs could be seen attending the high voltage event.

In an inspiring speech Shah said that each and every employee of Nabard including its Chairman should take a vow that besides being financially prudent it’s their job to uplift the rural economy. “You have to work in a mission mode”, added Shah in an auditorium packed with people connected to rural credit one way or the other.

In the coming times, NABARD should set its goals for the next 25 years, which should be reviewed every 5 years and the goals of 5 years should be reviewed every year. He said that there is a need to come forward with courage and foresight to achieve the goals. Shah said that none other than NABARD and cooperative institutions can take the pledge to take forward the changes taking place in the country to villages.

Speaking on the need to have cooperation among cooperatives Shah gave the example of a woman from Gujarat who wrote him a letter revealing private credit cards charge 30% monthly interest to her. “I did not believe it and enquired from my office and it was soon clear that this is really the case for many poor women; soon we started to motivate DCCBs to issue credit card and today two DCCBs of Gujarat have taken lead in this solving the problems of rural folks”, said Shah asking the two Chairmen to stand which drew thunderous applause from the audience.

Shah said that if we move ahead with the concept of ‘Cooperation among Cooperatives’ in the cooperative system of the country and if the entire money from PACS to APACS remains within its fold, then the cooperative system will require no money from anybody.

He said that the targets of NABARD should be fixed on financial parameters, but along with these, the targets of human and rural development will also have to be fixed. He also informed about the three multi-state cooperative societies on seed, organic and export recently formed at the behest of the Ministry.

The Union Minister of Cooperation said that from the point of view of income tax, the Modi government has done the work of bringing cooperative and corporate at the same rate after nearly 50 years of independence, in order to promote cooperatives. He said that we have also resolved the old dispute of Rs. 10000 crore of sugar mills, reduced the surcharge of cooperatives from 12% to 7%, and reduced MAT from 18.5% to 15%.

On this occasion Amit Shah also distributed Micro-ATM cards to milk societies and RuPay Kisan Credit cards to the members of co-op societies.

Shah also lauded Nabard on the occasion for several achievements. NABARD has worked as the backbone of this country’s rural economy, infrastructure, agriculture, cooperative institutions and self-help groups of this country for the last 4 decades, he stated.

He said that whenever the history of the country will be written, the 9 years governance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will be etched in golden letters as many initiatives were undertaken in these nine years to eradicate poverty and strengthen the agriculture system.

He also touched upon PACS and informed the audience about its new avatar to the audience. With NABARD as nodal agency, computerization of 63,000 PACS is being done, under which, the entire system from PACS to NABARD, including banking, auditing, will be made online through a software.