Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah inaugurated a National Mega Conclave on the launching of Common Services Centre (CSC) services by Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in New Delhi on Friday.
On this occasion, Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Railways Ashwini Vaishnav, Union Minister of State for Cooperation, B L Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation, Gyanesh Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Alkesh Kumar Sharma and Managing Director of CSC-SPV Sanjay Rakesh were present along with other dignitaries.
In his address, the Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that with the integration of PACS and CSC, two resolutions of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to strengthen cooperatives and promote Digital India are being fulfilled today.
The resolutions taken by Prime Minister Modi to eliminate corruption from governance through CSC under the Digital India Mission and taking facilities to the doorsteps of the poor people and to strengthen the rural economy by strengthening the entire cooperative system from PACS to Apex by forming the Ministry of Cooperation have been integrated today.
Shah said that Prime Minister Modi has guided the Ministry of Cooperation with a great vision. He said that if the cooperative movement has to be strengthened, then its smallest unit PACS has to be strengthened, said Shah explaining why computerization of PACS and a new format for the same were initiated.
He informed that more than 300 small beneficiary schemes of Government of India and State Governments have been integrated with CSC and there can be no better means than PACS to deliver CSC services to the poorest of the poor in the villages, landless agricultural laborers and Dalit and Tribal communities.
He said that by computerizing PACS, the government has made PACS multipurpose and also empowered them to function as FPOs (Farmer Producer Organization). Along with this, three Multi-State Cooperative Societies have been formed for seed production, marketing of organic farming and export of farmers’ produce. The world’s largest food grain storage scheme has also started. Shah said that in the next 5 years, small PACS will provide storage to 30% of the country’s food grains.
He said PACS will become the soul of economic activities of the village. Shah appealed to the people to take a pledge to strengthen PACS and take it forward by adopting the mantra of ‘Prosperity of village through strengthening of PACS’.
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation also referred to a new initiative to refund depositors money stuck in the cooperative societies of Sahara Group. He informed that till now 5 lakh people have registered in the portal and the process of refunding the money to the genuine depositors has started. He said that this is a great example of the fact that if a government works in a proactive manner, even the most complex problems can be solved.