The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah launched the computerization scheme for the offices of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCSs) and Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) of the states in New Delhi today. On this occasion, Union Minister of State for Cooperation Shri BL Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation and many dignitaries were present.

In his address, Shri Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, today we are taking another step forward in the direction of realizing the vision of "Sahkaar Se Samriddhi". He said that Prime Minister Modi has fulfilled the long-standing demand of the people associated with cooperatives by establishing an independent ministry of cooperation. He said that 10 years of Modi government are about to be completed and in these 10 years, Modi ji has done two important things for the villages, poor and farmers of the country. Shri Shah said that under the leadership of Modi ji, the Government of India has raised the standard of living of crores of poor people of the country, due to which about 23 crore people have come above the poverty line. He said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has created a robust system to connect crores of people with self-employment through cooperatives. He said that through these tasks with a broad vision, the Modi government has laid the foundation of strong rural development. He said that two steps of the Modi government – Digital India and setting up the Ministry of Cooperation – will prove to be the foundation of prosperous villages in the country and take the idea of developed India to the grassroots.

The Union Cooperation Minister said that today under Digital India, cooperation has also started reaching villages through digitally. He said that Modi ji has modernized the entire cooperative system starting from the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACSs), computerization of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies offices of the states and Agricultural and Rural Development Banks. Shri Shah said that both these schemes will cost approximately Rs 225 crore, out of which Rs 120 crore will be spent on ARDBs and Rs 95 crore will be spent on RCSs. He said that this will increase transparency and accountability and a facility is starting from today for farmers, seeking medium and long-term loans.

Shri Amit Shah said that in the last 2 years, the Modi government has worked with a far-reaching vision in a phased manner to enhance the digital ecosystem in cooperatives. He said that immediately after the formation of the Ministry of Cooperation, first the 65000 PACS, the Central Registrar of Cooperatives and then the PACSs along with all the district and state cooperative banks were computerized. After this, the national cooperative database was created and now with the computerization of ARDBs and RCSs, the entire cooperative sector is entering the digital world today. He said that modern and people-friendly software for computerization of 65,000 PACS has been prepared by NABARD and all PACSs will now be connected with I t. Similarly, the work of computerization of the Central Registrar Office has also been completed, so that all the work of this office can be done with a single software. Shri Shah said that through the National Cooperative Database, accurate information about cooperatives at the state, tehsil, district and village level will be known so that a framework can be prepared for the development of the cooperative sector. He said that the National Cooperative Database will prove to be very useful in filling the vacuum.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that with the computerization of the RCS office today, communication will be possible in the local languages of the states. He said that due to lack of attention at the highest level, the Agriculture and Rural Development Banks have not been able to perform its expected role. He said that this is a very useful system for medium and long-term loans that provide capital to the farmers to move towards modern farming. Shri Shah said that if we do not modernise farming, we will neither be able to increase the yield nor make the farmers prosperous.

Shri Amit Shah said that the computerization of ARDBs will greatly improve their operational efficiency; there will be uniformity in accounting, along with increasing transparency, and corruption will also be curbed. He said that the government is also considering linking all the Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks and State Cooperative Rural Development Banks with one national software by NABARD. This will strengthen the linkage of all types of agricultural loans. Shri Shah said that computerization of branches of 1851 ARDBs of the country will greatly benefit the 1 crore 20 lakh farmers associated with them.

The Computerization Project of Agricultural and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) aims to computerize 1851 units of ARDBs located in 13 States and UTs and link them with NABARD through Common National Software. This initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation will work to enhance the operations, efficiency, accountability, and transparency of ARDB by standardising business processes through the Common Accounting System (CAS) and Management Information System (MIS). Furthermore, the initiative aims to reduce transaction costs, facilitate loan distribution to farmers, and enable real-time data access for better monitoring and assessment of schemes.

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ASH/ RR/ PR/ AK