Aiming to achieve the goal of computerizing PACS as set by the Union Minister Amit Shah, the newly appointed Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation D K Singh held a virtual meeting of different state cooperative secretaries and cooperative registrars on Monday.
Discussions in the meeting were held about the new central plan to modernize and digitize over 97,000 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACs) spread across the country. It is notable that India has around 97,960 PACs out of which 65k are in profit.
It was only last week when Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah launched a massive campaign for the computerization of cooperative societies in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Speaking on the occasion, Shah said under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Government of India is preparing an action plan, under which efforts would be made to computerize all PACS across the country and link them with District Banks, State Co-operative Banks, and NABARD.
Cooperative Secretary Singh had organized the first meeting on the issue with three states, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, and Karnataka, to gauge the functioning of PACs, reports TOI.
One of the officials said, the ministry plans to hold a meeting with NABARD, which is going to be the coordinating agency for the modernization of PACs under the proposed plan, it added.
At present, the PACs of Uttarakhand and Telangana are fully computerized and in some states, the work of computerization is underway. Some states like Kerala have floated tenders for computerization.
Soon after taking over as the Cooperation Minister and in his first interaction with the captains of co-op bodies at mega co-op conclave at Indira Gandhi Stadium on Saturday, Cooperation Minister Amit Shah had laid emphasis on PACS and said that the Prime Minister’s vision of inclusive growth is only achievable through them.
“We have 95 thousand PACS as of now but it is not enough for 6 lac villages. The Ministry will work on a vision to form about 3 lac PACS in five years of time. We have already begun the work on the same”, he informed.
Shah also said that there is roughly one PACS on every 6 villages but the future efforts would be to have one PACS for two villages. PACS will be computerized and act as a growth engine for the rural economy, said Shah.
Shah also talked of amending the co-op Act for the formation of PACS. Presently you cannot form a PACS unless the defunct one is wound up and this provision has to go away for the quick formation of the new entity, said Shah with a sense of urgency.
“We are also looking at the possibilities of converting PACS into FPOs so that it gets all the benefits”, felt Shah.