BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Monday urged Union minister of state for Cooperation and Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol to extend liberal financial assistance to the state for setting up cold storages across all the sub-divisions.
Mohol called on the chief minister at Lok Seva Bhawan after attending the Eastern Region Ministers’ Conference on civil aviation. Sharing the success achieved by the state government in the cooperative sector in the past one year, Majhi said the Odisha government has decided to set up cold storages in all the sub-divisions of the state and also plans to create additional storage facilities for foodgrains in the districts.
“The central assistance to create cold stores will go a long way to solve the problems faced by the farmers and help address distress sale and damage of vegetables,” he said further requesting for financial assistance for all new primary agricultural cooperative societies.
The chief minister requested the Union minister to consider several key initiatives including extention of the loan repayment period for PACS from five to 10 years under grain storage scheme, reviving the sugar mills at Badamba and Balangir and establishment of a satellite centre of the Tribhuvan Sahkari University at Gopalpur in Ganjam district.
While appreciating the steps taken by the state government to develop the cooperative sector, the Union minister said the central government has taken extensive measures to promote cooperative development across various states of which some have been selected for pilot projects. He suggested Majhi to study the functioning of these states and assured full support of the Centre to the state government for development of the cooperative sector.