Ahmedabad

Union Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the Centre has taken measures to prevent registered PACS from becoming financially sick and will soon bring a policy for their quick settlement in case they have gone into liquidation and for registration of new PACS in their place.

The Union Minister of Cooperation said the Narendra Modi government aims to set up two lakh new Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) by 2029, and they are being connected to 22 different types of businesses, with arrangements being made to ensure registered PACS do not become financially sick.

"The work of connecting 22 different types of businesses with PACS has been done by the Union government, and I am sure arrangements have been made to ensure not a single registered PACS becomes financially sick in coming times," Shah said at 'Sahkari Mahasammelan' organised here to mark the International Year of Cooperatives.

In a short time, the Centre is going to bring a new policy for quick settlement of PACS that have gone into liquidation and for registration of new PACS in their place, he added.

The Union Minister said initiative is also being taken to involve "a cooperative-owned company" for manufacturing equipment such as those for making ice cream, cheese, paneer, keeping milk chilled as well as measuring fat etc as part of promoting a circular economy in the dairy sector.

In a short time, the government also plans experimentation with a circular economy in the dairy sector by forming a cooperative society for the use of skin, bones, and horns of animals when they die, he said.

"If the cooperative sector has to move forward, then we will have to make efforts to bring awareness, training and transparency in every group. The Cooperative Department of the Union government has set this as the goal of the Cooperative Year. Therefore, the Centre has given importance to both Science of Cooperation and Science in Cooperation - reviving and modernising the science of cooperation and the use of technology in cooperatives," he added.

He said the cooperative movement, which started during the Independence movement, had ended in many parts of the country, except for Gujarat.

But it is the responsibility of the cooperative leaders of Gujarat to make the movement symmetric, Shah added.

In order to make the cooperative sector strong, changes that it has gone through in recent years should be taken to the bottom level to benefit PACS members and farmers, Shah said.

"Every district, every state should be associated with the cooperative movement, the condition of primary mandali in every state should improve, strengthening district level institutions, which in turn should strengthen cooperative structure at the state and national level. To achieve this, the Union government has envisioned a fourth-tier cooperative structure in place of a three-tier structure," he said.

"We want to use the International Year of Cooperatives for this symmetric development. The entire campaign is based on three pillars - making cooperation a part of the mainstream of the society, bringing transparency and authenticity in the cooperative movement through technology, and accelerating the work of connecting more and more citizens to the cooperative movement," he said.

For this, his ministry has taken about 57 initiatives, Shah said.

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There is need for cooperation among cooperatives, an idea which has been implemented in Gujarat leading to an increase of Rs 11,000 crore in the deposits of the cooperative sector, Shah asserted.