BENGALURU: Union Minister for Home and Cooperation Amit Shah said the Union Government will introduce a new legislation to help Primary Agriculture Credit Societies that are facing liquidation. He added that there is a need for reformation in the cooperative sector. He was speaking after inaugurating the ‘Cooperative Conference’ here on Friday. Shah said the Centre has prepared the draft rules and the same will be shared with the states soon.
Noting that the Centre had given importance to the cooperative sector by establishing a separate ministry, Shah said there are plans to prepare a national cooperative database. “The government will also be establishing an exclusive university to study cooperative management,” he said. “There should be more transparency in the election and recruitment process to the cooperatives,” he said.
Shah, who released the logo of the Nandini Ksheera Samridhi Sahakara Bank, lauded the State Government’s initiative of establishing a cooperative bank only for milk producers. Referring to the central project of issuing credit cards to farmers, Shah said,
“Karnataka is the first state to start such a bank. I want Karnataka to take up credit card project as a pilot and pave way for its extension in other states”. CM Basavaraj Bommai said the government has decided to computerise all 5,775 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Banks in the state in a year.
Welfare talk