Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah replied to the discussion on the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in the Lok Sabha today. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill after discussion.

Replying to the discussion on the bill in the Lok Sabha, the Minister of Cooperation said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Union Cabinet has given approval to this bill to increase transparency, accountability and profit in multi-state cooperative societies. He said that in this bill, a provision has been made for the Election Authority to implement electoral reforms to conduct fair elections, and the Authority will be as powerful as the Election Commission and there will be no government interference in it. In addition, if one-third vacancies are created in the Board, a provision has been made to hold elections again for the vacant posts. Along with this, there are also provisions for discipline in board meetings and smooth functioning of cooperative societies. The chairman, vice-chairman and members of the committees will be required to call board meeting in 3 months. He said that in order to bring transparency in the governance of the cooperative society, a provision has been made to give majority to the equity shareholders.

Shri Amit Shah said that reservation to one Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe and one woman in the committees has been provided in this bill which will increase representation of these sections in the committees. He said that non-compliance of various constitutional requirements can lead to disqualification of the board members. Shri Shah said that in the recruitment process of employees, no one will be given job in blood relation or distant relation. He said that Right to Information has also been included in this bill.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that with the passing of this bill by this House, a new era will begin in the country's cooperative movement.

The Union Minister of Cooperation also informed the Lok Sabha about the various steps taken by the Ministry of Cooperation under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, to strengthen cooperatives in the country. He said that since independence, all the people associated with cooperative sector in the country wanted that cooperatives should be given importance by the Central Government and a separate Ministry of Cooperation should be formed. Shri Shah said that fulfilling this decades-old demand, Prime Minister Modi formed a separate Ministry of Cooperation.

Shri Amit Shah said that the cooperative movement in India is about 115 years old and this movement has given the country many important enterprises, like Amul, Kribhco, IFFCO, which are source of employment for lakhs of people today. He said that no attention was paid to cooperatives in the last 75 years, nor was there any brainstorming on this in the country's parliament at the national or state level. Shri Shah said that in the next 25 years after the formation of Ministry of Cooperation, the cooperative sector will once again strongly contribute to the development of the country.

The Union Minister of Cooperation said that under the leadership of Shri Modi, there have been many major changes in the cooperative sector of the country in the last two years. He said that the Central Government has made several efforts to revive the PACS, make them viable and multi-dimensional. He said that Prime Minister Modi has done the work of computerization of 63,000 PACS across the country at a cost of Rs.2500 crores. This will ensure linkage of the PACS with District Cooperative Banks, State Cooperative Banks and NABARD. Shri Shah said that after computerization, the process of audit of PACS will be completely online and they will be able to do many different kind of businesses. He said that the Modi government prepared model bye-laws for PACS and sent them to all the states and, except Bengal and Kerala, all the states have accepted them and today PACS across the country are running under a similar law. Shri Shah said that now PACS will be able to do the work of FPO as well and 1100 PACS have already been registered as FPO.

Shri Amit Shah said that Shri Modi has given gas cylinders to crores of people of the country and now PACS will also be able to do the work of LPG distribution. Similarly, Shri Modi is giving free food grains to crores of people of the country and now PACS will also be able to function as retail outlets. Now PACS will also be able to run Janaushadhi Kendras and do the work of water distribution by functioning as a water committee. He said that Shri Modi has connected the PACSs to the storage system and now they will be engaged in the storage, as well. Shri Shah said that in this budget, Shri Modi has ended the injustice done to cooperatives for years and brought cooperative and corporate taxes at parity. He said that farmers of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh sell their sugarcane to cooperative sugar mills, but 30 percent income tax was imposed on it. He said that Shri Modi has completely abolished the tax on the profit of the farmers and not only this, he has also made a provision to refund the tax paid earlier.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that the Modi government decided to form 3 new multi-state societies to strengthen cooperatives. The first society will act as a platform to export the produce of the farmers. The second society will associate small farmers with the production of seeds and through this farmers with 1 acre of land will also be able to associate with seed production. The third society will provide suitable price to the farmers for their produce by marketing their organic products across the country and the world. Shri Shah said that apart from this, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has also decided to set up a cooperative university for cooperative education in the coming days. The National Cooperative Database will also be started soon by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He said that there was never a national cooperative policy in the country between 2003 and 2020, but under the leadership of Shri Modi, before Diwali this year, the new national cooperative policy will be formulated which will put the map of cooperatives in front of the country for the next 25 years.

Shri Amit Shah said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has striven to free crores of people of the country from poverty in last 9 years. He added that agriculture and cooperatives are the only ways to generate employment in the country and for this, the Prime Minister has set up a separate Ministry of Cooperation.

Detailed provisions for subjects like reforming the election process of members, bringing transparency in the society, strengthening the monitoring system and ease of doing business have been made in the Bill

Provisions have also been made in the bill, regarding discipline and professionalism among the members of the society, representation of weaker and marginalized sections in the board of directors. Bill also contains provisions regarding matters such as bringing transparency in the process of recruitment of employees, appointment of auditors from a panel approved by the Central Registrar and bringing financial discipline through prescribed standards of Audit and Accounts

In the bill, prompt corrective action through Concurrent Audit, compliance of discipline by Central Registrar in fraudulent and illegal activities of a Society, its formation and investigation of its functioning and financial condition has also been emphasized. In order to ensure ease of doing business, the Bill also has provisions for amendment in registration procedures, speedy disposal of applications and electronic submission of applications, documents, and their scrutiny etc.

The Bill also provides for redemption of government shares with the prior approval of the government, liquidation after providing an opportunity of being heard to the multi-state co-operative society, and enforcement of the Banking Regulation(BR) Act, 1949 on co-operative banks.

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