Centre Ready with Model Bylaws to Make PACS 'Multi-Purpose': Amit Shah

According to Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, the Centre intends to make primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) "multi-purpose," and model bylaws for the same are ready. The government also intends to establish a multi-state cooperative society for seed culture and marketing, as well as certification of organic products across the country, according to Shah, who spoke at the annual general meeting of seven cooperative institutions in Gujarat's Amreli district, where Assembly elections are scheduled for later this year.

"Seva Sahkari Mandali (PACS) will be multipurpose, with marketing, godowns, gobar (dung) gas production, electricity bill collection, gas distribution agency facilities, Nal Se Jal scheme, and so on." "Model bylaws for this multi-purpose mandali are ready, and they will be sent to you before the end of September," he said. "The country's PACS will be multipurpose and profitable," said the minister.

Shah also stated that the government intends to increase the number of PACS in the country from 65,000 to three lakh over the next five years, beginning in December. "The day three lakh PACS are registered, there will be one PACS in every panchayat in the country," he said, adding that the government is also computerizing them.

According to him, the government intends to issue a new cooperative policy that will include the ability to register cooperative societies in sectors such as health, insurance, transportation, and tourism. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi's emphasis on natural farming, the government intends to establish a multi-state cooperative for organic product marketing and certification, which will directly benefit organic farmers, Shah said at the event.

"Amul and five cooperative societies have joined forces to form a multi-state cooperative society to set up a laboratory in every state to check the soil and organic products and certify them as Amul organic products so that the profit is transferred directly into the bank accounts of farmers," he explained.

Shah also discussed the establishment of a multi-state cooperative export house to export agricultural products to the global market for the benefit of farmers. In an attack on opposition parties, Shah claimed that when the Congress was in power in Gujarat, all dairy cooperatives in the state's Saurashtra region were closed down, giving private players an opportunity to exploit milk producers.

Cooperative dairies began to function properly after Modi became Gujarat's chief minister, he claims. Shah also stated that the idea of establishing a separate cooperation ministry came from the then-Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala. Rupala is now the Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairy, and was present at the event. "When Rupala was Minister of State for Agriculture, he spoke in Krishi Bhavan about the plight of cooperative leaders." "If anyone told Narendrabhai (Modi) about establishing a separate cooperation ministry, it was Parshottam Rupala," Shah said.

"Modi later asked me to inquire and see what could be done." I stated that there was nothing to inquire about because it was something that had to be done. So let us get started. "As a new effort to make crores of farmers prosperous in the country," PM Modi formed a separate cooperation ministry.