A Centrally sponsored project for Computerization of 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)/Large Area Multi-Purpose Societies (LAMPS)/Farmers Service Societies (FSS) across the country with a total financial outlay of Rs. 2,516 Crore, approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 29th June, 2022, is under implementation.

At present, proposal for computerization of 54,752 PACS/LAMPS/FSS has been received from the States/UTs and central share amounting to Rs. 201.18 crore has been released for the procurement of hardware, digitization of legacy data and establishing support system. The Project Monitoring Units (PMUs) have been set up at Central and State Levels by NABARD. Development of software has been started by the National Level Project Software Vendor (NLPSV) selected by NABARD.

The project entails bringing all the functional PACS onto on ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) based common software, linking them with NABARD through State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs), that will also help in maintaining check and balance on repayment of the loan disbursed.

The Ministry of Cooperation in consultation with States/UTs & other stakeholders concerned, has prepared Model Bye-laws for PACS to diversify their activities to become Multipurpose Cooperative Societies. Model byelaws have been circulated to all the States/UTs on 05.01.2023 for their adoption by PACS subject to their respective State Cooperative Societies Acts. The Model Bye-laws would enable PACS to carry out more than 25 business activities such as dairy, fisheries, food grain storage, LPG/CNG/Petrol/Diesel distributorship, common service centers, Fair Price Shops (FPS), community irrigation, Business Correspondent activities, etc. The common national software would support all the activities mentioned in the model byelaws including the provision of inputs like fertilizer, seeds, etc. by PACS.

However, waiving of agricultural loans does not come under the purview of Ministry of Cooperation.

This was stated by the Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

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