In a historic decision and for the first time, Registrars of Cooperatives of States and UTs as well as Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) are being given funds by the Centre for computerisation.
“In this regard, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah has taken an important decision to computerize and empower the registrars of all 28 states and 8 union territories, and 1,851 Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) operating in 13 states”, reads a govt release.
Despite co-op being a state subject, the union ministry headed by Amit Shah is trying its best to take the state co-op departments onboard in writing a new chapter in the history of the cooperative movement.
On the lines of the computerization scheme of all Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) in the country, a centrally sponsored scheme has been approved for computerization of 1,851 units of Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) of 13 states through a national unified software and computerization of offices of Registrars of Cooperatives of all States/Union Territories similar to the Central Registrar.
A Central Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) will be established for this scheme, which will work towards the successful implementation of the scheme. The total estimated expenditure for this scheme will be Rs 225.09 crore.
The implementation of this scheme will not only enable people to quickly access services provided by the Cooperative Departments of states and the offices of Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) but will also bring transparency and uniformity in the functioning of these offices, which will make them more efficient and save the time, underlines the release.
The govt sources add that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and guidance of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, the Government of India has taken several steps to strengthen all the cooperative societies of the country.
The Indian Cooperative Portal would mince no words in calling this move laudable, especially when it is aware that the offices of several state registrars are crying for a facelift to be in sync with time.