PACs in AP to sell petrol and diesel, run LPG stations: CS

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Secretary Jawahar Reddy has said all the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies would be converted into common service points (CSPs) in Andhra Pradesh.

Presiding over the cooperative development committee meeting held in Vijayawada on Friday, he discussed with officials on how to strengthen the cooperative sector banks, sugar factories etc and bring all cooperative societies under one umbrella.

Jawahar Reddy said all the eligible PACs in the state would sell petrol and diesel and run LPG stations. As part of this, 83 PACs were selected and of these, 31 societies obtained NOCs.

As for the disbursal of generic medicines, 137 PACs and 12 district cooperative marketing societies have applied for pharmacy licence. Of these, 94 PACs and 10 DCMSs obtained licences. The PAC in Eluru has started selling generic medicines.

The CS said, as a pilot project, the Mrityunjay Visala Cooperative Society at Achanta in the West Godavari district has been picked up to build a world-class paddy storage warehouse. Some 228 PACs began rendering common services of the 1371 PACs that have been synchronized for this purpose.

The government was aiming at making 1,900 PACs the common service points. Of these, 1519 have applied so far and the services were recognized by the Electronics Ministry.

He said new Town Cooperative Bank branches would be opened as per the guidelines issued by RBI. It has already issued 29 licences and would clear the pending applications before August 15.

Principal Secretary to the agriculture cooperative department Chiranjeevi Choudhary said the state and central governments have released ₹14.93 crore in the ratio of 40:60 to digitalise the cooperative societies, 

After computerization, PACs would function like banks.

Registrar of cooperative societies, Ahmad Babu, said details of all the PACs and other cooperative societies have been fed for the creation of the comprehensive national database centre.