In an exclusive interview given to the Indian Cooperative, Sahakar Bharati President D N Thakur has vowed to move in tandem with the Cooperation Ministry and help it realize its ambitious projects including revitalizing PACS.
“We have a network in 700 districts of the country and we operate at the grassroots level. Some of the projects being launched by the ministry need to have people’s support at the ground level and here comes the role of Sahakar Bharati”, said Thakur vowing to work shoulder to shoulder with the Ministry.
“We will work to take the initiatives of the Ministry of Cooperation at the village level for strengthening the rural economy. We will help the government in the establishment of two lakh new multi-purpose PACS/Dairy/Fisheries Cooperative societies at the panchayat and village levels”, said Sahakar Bharati’s President DN Thakur while talking to this correspondent.
Congratulating the Union Ministry of Cooperation for taking major initiatives especially in strengthening PACS, Thakur said that Sahakar Bharati will also work together with the Ministry to realize the vision of formation of new farmers producers organization (FPOs) by PACS.
“Sahakar Bharati workers spread across the country are also actively participating in spreading the cooperative movement far and wide. They are not only creating awareness about cooperatives among the common people but also urging them to become a part of this movement, which aims to empower farmers as well as the rural economy”, claimed the President of the organization.
Sahakar Bharati has its presence in the majority of states and union territories. In the last one year, it has opened many new offices in several states of the country.
It bears recalling that the Union Ministry of Cooperation has taken many initiatives in two years of its existence. Since its formation, the Ministry of Cooperation has taken more than 45 Initiatives in a period of 24 months.
The major initiatives include Strengthening PACS, Establishment of Multipurpose PACS, Dairy, fisheries cooperatives in every panchayat World’s largest decentralized Grain storage program in the cooperative sector, formation of new FPOs by PACS, Relief from Income Tax to Cooperative Sugar Mills, process to establish Cooperative University and others.
Other initiatives included are moves to amend the MSCS Act with an aim to attune it to current times, a Panel formed under Suresh Prabhu to have new cooperative policy which could help co-ops make India a five trillion-dollar economy, etc.
Earlier, Sahakar Bharati collaborated with the government on the issue of Ganga Sahakar Gram project. Readers would recall that last year in September National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and Sahakar Bharati signed an MoU for setting up at least 75 Ganga Sahakar Grams in the Ganga basin to promote natural farming and other interventions under Arth Ganga.
This month only, Sahakar Bharati organized a program on Ganga Sahakar Gram Project in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, in which Union Minister of State for Cooperation BL Verma was the chief guest.