AHMEDABAD: Attacking opposition parties, Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that 'Cooperative institutions were on death bed under Congress rule.
He was addressing the Annual General Meeting of Gujarat cooperative institutions organized in Amreli city in Gujarat. The Assembly elections in the state are due later this year.
Amit Shah added that all the dairies in Gujarat, especially in Saurashtra were locked when Congress was in power, but after Modi became CM of Gujarat, he funded and revived the cooperative dairies,'
“As against the 2500 liters of milk processed during the Congress regime, today 1,25000 liters of milk is processed, Congress ruined the life of farmers. The condition of traders and farmers had become worse under the Congress government,” he said.
“A scam like Rafaleshwar made all the dairies fail. Within Gujarat and Saurashtra, farmers distributed milk with the exploitation of traders, as dairies of cooperatives sectors were not active. Narendra Modi started all the dairies in Saurashtra with capital funds and today I am proud to say that the dairy boom is going on in all the districts of Saurashtra and my sisters get money every 10 days.’
Shah also informed about the Centre's plans to make primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) ”multi-purpose” and model bylaws for the same are ready, he also informed that The government also plans to form a multi-state cooperative society for seed culture and marketing as well as certification of organic products across the country.
Amit Shah Said ”Seva Sahkari Mandali (PACS) will be made multipurpose with facilities for marketing, godowns, making gobar (dung) gas, electricity bill collection, facility for gas distribution agencies, Nal Se Jal scheme, etc. Model bylaws are ready for this multi-purpose mandali, and it will be sent to you before September-end,” the minister said. ”The country’s PACS will be multi-purpose and profit making, the government also aims to raise the number of PACS in the country from the existing 65,000 to three lakh during the next five years starting from 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 has also undertaken their computerization. The government plans to develop a new cooperative policy with the facility for registration of cooperative societies in sectors like health, insurance, transportation and tourism, he said.
Shah also informed about setting up a multi-state cooperative export house to export agriculture products to the world market for the benefit of farmers.
”For certification and marketing of organic products, Amul and five cooperative societies have been brought together to form a multi-state cooperative society, to set up a laboratory in every state to check 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 said.
The annual General Meeting of Gujarat cooperative institutions was organized two days after, the Home Minister chaired a two-day conference of State Cooperation Ministers organized by the Ministry of Cooperation in New Delhi on September 8 to 9 in which deliberations were held on various important themes.
After attending the cooperatives’ meeting, the Home Minister worshiped at Lord Somnath temple and launched Somnath website, Shah also unveiled a 16-feet statue of Lord Hanuman in Somnath town and inaugurated 262 shops, called as ‘Maruti Haat’, near the Arabian Sea coast in the town. In his day-long visit to his hometown