The Centre on Tuesday sanctioned Rs 10,000 crore to the Haryana Government through the Haryana State Co-operative Apex Bank for the developmental work of cooperative societies across the state, a move that will go a long way in realising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Sahakar se Samriddhi’, strengthening the cooperative movement and deepening its reach up to the grassroots.
Union Home and Cooperation Minister made the announcement after inaugurating various projects of the Haryana Cooperative Department at an event at Haryana Cooperative Export House (HAFED) here in Karnal on Tuesday.
The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) of the Union government sanctioned Rs 10,000 crore amount to the Haryana Government through the Haryana State Co-operative Apex Bank to help boost the cooperative sector in the State, which is expected to prove to be ‘Sanjeevani’ for the poorest of the poor. Haryana is second in the country in production of food grains and milk.
The NCDC, which is running under the aegis of the Government of India has sanctioned an amount of Rs 10,000 crore to Haryana for different works of cooperatives, which will be given to farmers’ cooperatives on low interest. A campaign has also been started to make the District Cooperative Bank NPA free, Shah said.
On the occasion, Internet Radio “Sahakarita Vani” and an Export House was also launched. While the export house will provide facilities ranging from packaging to branding and exports for the benefit of the farmers, the Internet Radio will disseminate major scientific information related to farming, animal breeding and improvement in the quality of milk etc. among the farmers from time to time.
Lauding Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for taking lead in setting up the Cooperative export house, the Minister said the Union Cabinet under the leadership of Narendra Modi has taken a decision that the Government of India will set up a Cooperative Export House which will send all agricultural and handicraft products to the world markets.
Shah said that he had also appealed at that time that the states should also set up their own export houses and those export houses should become members of the Government of India’s export houses.
“The Haryana government has made a very good beginning by starting this work so soon. All arrangements from testing, branding, bank linkage, and letter of credit to export will be made in the Cooperative Export House with state-of-the-art facilities in Haryana’s Karnal,” the country’s first Cooperative Minister said, informing that HAFED has exported goods worth Rs 650 crores till now.
Shah also took note of the Haryana Government’s initiative to establish a joint animal shelter under the aegis of the Haryana Dairy Development Association and many measures like animal fodder, veterinary medicine and vaccination are associated with it.
He said this will not only connect poor people with animal husbandry but also create an atmosphere of cleanliness in the entire village and cow dung gas can also be made.
Union Cooperative Minister Shah also said that a cooperative milk plant has also been inaugurated with the capacity to process five lakh litres of milk per day and its cost is about Rs 200 crore. He said that many cattle herders would be benefited by this.
Apart from this, an ethanol plant with a capacity of 90,000 litres per day has also been set up at a cost of Rs 150 crore.
On the occasion, the Union Minister enlisted various initiatives taken by his Ministry during the tenure of about one and a quarter years in the cooperative sector.
“First of all, the work of strengthening Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) was started, and the government engaged in making model bylaws for them. Recently PACS have been allowed to work as CSC (Common Service Center). Now, these packs will be able to do 20 different activities.”
It was announced in the budget that before 2025 PACS will be established in every panchayat of the country, 65000 PACS have been formed since independence, but by creating 2 lakh new PACS in the next 3 years, the Modi Government will increase the scope of Cooperation, the Minister asserted.
