Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah will inaugurate a ‘National Seminar on Delivery of CSC services through Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS)’ at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 21st July, 2023. Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw will also be present.
Cooperative lender NCDC is organizing this Seminar in collaboration with the CSC. During the program various aspects related to CSC services by PACS will be discussed. Till now, 17,000 PACS have been onboarded on CSC portal, out of which 6,000 PACS are going to start providing services as CSCs.
In a release PIB says, “PACS are the backbone of cooperatives in the country, and delivery of CSC services through PACS in rural areas will increase employment opportunities. PACS form the basis of the country’s cooperative movement, and that is why the Modi government is making continuous efforts to improve their viability. The Ministry of Cooperation has a wide network of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) across the country to provide credit services to the villagers.”
The government is working on computerisation of PACS in the country to bring transparency in the system and improve financial discipline of PACS and further strengthen PACS, National Cooperative University, National Cooperative Policy and Cooperative Database which are in the pipeline, reads the release.
“By making PACS multi-purpose, PM Modi has taken an important step towards increasing the income of farmers. Multi State Cooperative Societies have been formed for seeds, marketing of organic farming and export of farmers’ produce”, it adds.
The model bylaws, prepared by the Ministry of Cooperation after consultation with all stakeholders, will enable PACS to diversify its business by undertaking more than 25 different economic activities, including, dairy, fisheries, godowns, custom hiring centers, fair price shops, LPG/diesel/petrol distributorship, etc.
Further, in consultations with the Ministries concerned, PACS have also been enabled to function as Common Service Centres (CSCs), form FPOs, apply for LPG Distributorship, retail petrol/ diesel pump outlets, open Jan Aushadhi Kendras, work as fertilisers distribution centres etc. Delivery of CSC services through PACS is a big step towards strengthening them, which will allow PACS to provide facilities like Common Service Centre in the country and its benefits will reach crores of people living in rural areas in the country.
These village-level cooperative credit societies act as the last mile link in the three-tier cooperative credit structure headed by the State Cooperative Banks (SCBs). PACS provide short term and medium-term agriculture loans to farmers for various agriculture and farming activities.
MoS Cooperation, BL Verma, Secretary, Gyanesh Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT, Alkesh Kumar Sharma and MD, CSC-SPV, Sanjay Rakesh will also be present during the event. A short film on ‘Delivery of CSC Services by PACS’ will also be screened during the event.