Primary agriculture credit society activities diversified for financial empowerment: Amit Shah
Bhopal: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the cooperative movement which was almost dead in the country due to the policy inaction in the past has been revived following creation of a separate cooperation ministry at the Centre around four years ago.
Addressing the state-level cooperative conference here, Mr. Shah said the cooperative sector played a key role in boosting the economy of the farmers particularly in rural areas.
But the cooperation ministry was created at the Centre around four years ago nearly 75 years after independence, he said while citing the indifference to the sector meted out by the previous governments.
The cooperative movement has declined due to the failure by the previous governments to change the law according to the needs of the time, he added.
“For years, the cooperative movement was moving slowly and almost dead” he said.
It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who revived the cooperative movement by creating a separate cooperation ministry, he said.
He described the situation in the cooperative movement in the country as ‘uneven’.
“In some states, the movement gained momentum, while in some places it has been destroyed. The main reason for the decline of cooperative movement was that the laws, which should have been changed with time, were not tweaked”, he said.
He said the cooperative sector is a state subject, but initiatives were not taken to frame cooperative laws adapting to rapidly changing conditions across the country.
“This scenario was not considered from a holistic point of view at the national level, because there was no separate ministry for cooperatives”, he added.
He said the Centre has enacted model bylaws to empower primary societies.
Despite the fact that the cooperative sector is a state-subject, all the states have accepted the modern bylaws for cooperatives, he added.
Mr. Shah narrated how the primary agriculture credit societies, which used to work in short-term agriculture finance and earned only a half percent profit, have now increased their income by diversifying their functioning.
They are now involved in selling generic medicines by joining Ayushman Bharat and facilitating more than 303 government schemes to reach the beneficiaries by joining CSC (common service Centers).
The primary agriculture credit societies will further expand their activities in coming days by entering into new areas to run petrol pumps, and take cooking gas agencies.
Mr. Shah said earlier the farmers with large land holdings could engage in seed farming. The government has now extended the opportunity to the farmers having as small as two-and-a-half acres.
He said the conservation and promotion of seeds would be managed by the ‘Seed Cooperative’ to ensure that farmers receive fair prices for their produce.
