Draft of National Co-op Policy ready; awaits Shah’s final seal

The much-touted National Cooperative Policy, which prepares a road map for the growth of cooperatives in the country for the next twenty-five years, is almost ready awaiting Union Minister Amit Shah’s final approval. This would have happened on Monday itself if the Manipur episode had not preoccupied Shah, said a Ministerial source.

The Drafting team led by former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu had arrived in Delhi on Monday to give a presentation to Shah and seek his final word on the NCP. Even NCUI President Dileep Sanghani was in the town. The team was a little disappointed when informed that Shah had left for Imphal in the wake of Manipur’s escalating incidents.

“The meeting will be organized sooner than later”, assured a ministerial source.

It bears recalling that Prabhu had earlier held a meeting with the Ministry of Cooperation Secretary, Additional Secretary and Joint Secretaries in the context of draft of the new National Cooperative Policy. The meeting was held at Atal Akshay Urja Bhawan, the office of the Ministry of Cooperation.

Gyanesh Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation, Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies Vijay Kumar, Vamnicom Director Hema Yadav and others attended this meeting which was a prelude to the final meeting with Union Minister Shah.

Tweeting about the meeting, Prabhu tweeted, “We are working on the “New National Cooperative Policy, a mission led by Shri Amit Shah ji under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi ji. Today, we had an excellent interaction at the Ministry of Cooperation, Government of India with the dynamic Secretary, Additional Secretary, and Joint Secretaries to fine-tune the roadmap for #SahakarSeSamriddhi”.

It is learned that the draft of the new National Cooperative Policy is almost ready for the perusal of the Union Cooperation Minister. Earlier, the Ministry of Cooperation had given its views and inputs on the draft.

The draft of the new National Cooperative Policy 2022, offers a roadmap for the next 25 years i.e. from 2024-2047.

According to sources, the draft mentions the establishment of 50,000 new PACCS, Dairy and others between 2024-2030. During the years, the share of rural credit will be enhanced from the current share of 18 percent to 20 percent and share of UCBs in the banking system from 3.06 percent to 4 percent.

The new National Cooperative Policy draft also mentions the establishment of the National Cooperative of Bank of India, which will be similar to Nabard. It will be established with the RBI license. The objective of the bank is to deploy funds for 63,000 PACs for development, among others.