Bengaluru: Union Minister for Home and Cooperation Amit Shah on Friday stressed on more transparency, zero corruption and increase in creditability to make the cooperative movement successful in the country. Underlining that the cooperative sector has the potential to uplift the rural economy and in turn contribute to the national economy in a big way, he said the cooperative movement has helped poor people to increase their income.
I see a huge potential in the cooperative sector but there are some challenges too. If we do not address them, then in the coming days the next generation will never know what this movement is about, Shah said during a Conference on Cooperation. I want the cooperative sector to be more transparent and increase its credibility. Corruption in this sector has to be stopped. We have to make the election transparent. Recruitments and promotions have to be transparent, Shah said.
The Centre is going to approve usage of Government Marketplace (GeM), the national public procurement portal, to make purchasing in cooperative sector more transparent, Shah said. He added that corruption will be eliminated when procurement is done through GeM and that too from those who quote the lowest price. The Minister also emphasised that the cooperative movement should reach every village when India enters its centenary year. We will make it transparent and trustworthy. We will use cooperation as a tool for eradicating poverty and agriculture development, Shah said.
Stating that he had been associated with the cooperative movement from a very young age, Shah said he felt at home in Karnataka as the movement was started by Siddanagouda S Ramanagouda Patil in a remote village in Gadag in 1905. The movement that started in 1905 gave birth to AMUL, which has a turnover of Rs 7,000 crore, Shah said. He added that a small venture by women under the name Lijjat Papad exports its products to 33 countries. Two cooperative organisations, IFFCO and KRIBHCO, are the two major fertiliser manufacturing companies.
Nandini Milk of Karnataka has become a major cooperative brand from Karnataka with a turnover of Rs 17,000 crore, Shah pointed out. Stressing on the role of cooperation in doubling farm income, he said strengthening the Farmers' Producer Organisations (FPO) and Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) formation of the cooperation ministry, fishery and milk production are among the measures in this direction.
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Speaking about the Karnataka State Souharda Federation Cooperative Limited, which he virtually inaugurated, Shah said it is a big step to bring more transparency in the cooperative movement and minimise the interference of government in the cooperative sector. More than 5,000 committees and 62 lakh people have become its members and are part of it and it has a capital of Rs 1,000 crore. This says that if we increase our credibility then the cooperative movement can bring a major transformation, the Union Minister said.
Referring to the Nandini Ksheera Samruddhi Sahakara Bank, whose logo was inaugurated at the event, Shah said Karnataka is the only state in the entire country to set up a separate bank of milk producers. The Minister pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to give a credit card for the milk producers in the country. The Bank would give credit card to the milk producers in the state.
This is a central government scheme, which you have to promote and help the milk producers to become self dependent. This bank will give credit at a low interest rate for basic infrastructure and working capital, Shah told Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who was also present there. The Union Minister hailed Prime Minister Modi for forming a separate ministry of cooperation. By responding to the decades' long demand, the Prime Minister has given a big support to the cooperative movement, he added.
The recommendations of various committees, which were gathering dust, will now be looked into. We are planning a major overhaul in the cooperative sector. The Union government is going to convene a meeting of various cooperative ministers, Shah said. According to him, the Centre has taken up the computerisation of 63,000 PACS in the country. The PACS, district cooperative bank and state cooperative bank and NABARD will use common software to provide agriculture loan. This software will be available in all the languages of India, he explained.
"For the revival of those PACS which have gone for the liquidation we want to recommend some reforms in the laws in a suggestive manner," Shah explained. There isn't any National Cooperative Database for which we are working (to have a database). We are also planning a cooperative university. We will also introduce a new cooperative policy for the sector, Shah said. Speaking about other measures, he said the government has divided the cooperative sector in three segments, which are developed state, developing and underdeveloped. We will plan separate action plans for these categories to take the cooperative movement to every village of the country, Shah told the gathering.
PTI
