Speaking on the occasion of Kashmir Mahotsav, Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said that the villages of the country would be made prosperous through cooperatives in the not too distant future as efforts to achieve it have gathered pace in the last one year. Shah lauded the vision of the Prime Minister for the same in his speech.
Amit Shah was addressing the Kashmir Mahotsav, organized by the Indian Institute of Sustainability, Gujarat University through video conferencing on Thursday. Several dignitaries including Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh were present on this occasion.
Amit Shah said that by forming the Ministry of Cooperation, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is trying to connect every single village with the development system and the poorest of the poor Indian with the economy.
Shah added that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has called upon the countrymen, especially the youth, to imbibe the concept of “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat” as the mantra of life. Shah felt that a robust co-op movement would go a long way in making India a unique country.
The country’s first innovation park was established in Gujarat University and currently it is supporting more than 300 start-ups, said Shah adding the Amul Cooperative Society in Gujarat smoothly functions with the hard-work of over 28 lakh women and its annual turnover is Rs. 60,000 crores.
He said that recently the Union cabinet, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has decided that in the next three years, Multidimensional Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) will be constituted in two lakh panchayats of the country which will give new dimensions to rural development to the Panchayats.
Shri Shah said that the Ministry of Cooperation is working with state governments to form these multi-purpose PACS at the grassroots level. It bears recalling that after being entrusted with the assignment of the Cooperation Ministry, Shah and his team have worked out a model of PACS for every Panchayat. The multipurpose PACS aims to make itself the nodal point for all development activities.
Readers would recall that the Draft of new PACS provides several jobs including community-based service in the field of education (school, college), health (hospital, dispensary, clinical laboratory, ambulance service), tourism and environmental and sustainable development activities to the members.
The Draft bylaws talk of PACS participating in the Government Scheme for payment services through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to beneficiaries in the operational area of the Society.
The future PACS will also act as a source of information/data centre to be used by the Government for various purposes. It will also act as a Common Service Centre for facilitating on-line/digital services in the area of operation of the Society.
In his address, Amit Shah touched on many other issues beyond cooperatives which included the eminent position of Kashmir in Indian history, different schemes launched by the Prime Minister such as ‘Skill India’, Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, Digital India Mission, Fit India, Khelo India for the youth of the country.
