New Delhi: Some leading figures of the country's cooperative sector on Saturday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who said the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is determined to make cooperatives and all cooperative institutions more empowered. The meeting came three days after the prime minister reallocated the portfolios of his ministers in which Shah was given the charge of the newly created Ministry of Cooperation.
Those who met the home minister include chairman of the National Cooperative Union of India Dileep Sanghani, the chairman and the managing director of the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) B S Nakai and U S Awasthi respectively and chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) Bijender Singh.
"Today met @ncuicoop Chairman Shri Dileep Sanghani ji, @IFFCO_PR Chairman Shri B S Nakai ji, Managing Director Shri U S Awasthi ji and @nafedindia Chairman Dr Bijendra Singh ji. "Under the leadership of Modi ji, we are determined to make cooperatives and all cooperative institutions more empowered," Shah tweeted in Hindi.
Officials said even though Shah has not yet assumed the charge of the ministry of cooperation, he has begun to meet people. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who has been given additional charge of the newly created Ministry of Cooperation, has long been associated with the cooperative societies in Gujarat. His Gujarat model in the cooperative sector has hogged headlines in the past, as he was once called the father of the cooperative movement in the state. His work in the cooperative sector in Gujarat is remembered even today.
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The ministry of cooperation has been created to provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country and will help deepen cooperatives as a true people based movement reaching up to the grassroots. The ministry is likely to have the same importance as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Amit Shah has been the convener of the Bharatiya Janata Party's National Cooperative Cell (SAIL) in Gujarat. He was also the youngest chairman of the Ahmedabad District Co-operative Bank (ADCB) at the age of 36. During his stint, in just one year, Shah not only broke even the bank's loss of Rs 20.28 crore but also brought in a profit of Rs 6.60 crore. For this achievement in the cooperative sector in Gujarat, Amit Shah was called the father of the cooperative movement.
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PTI
