Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah inaugurated Computerization of Uttarakhand’s Multipurpose Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Societies (MPACS), Joint cooperative farming, Jan Suvidha Kendras and Janaushadhi Kendras in Haridwar today. Many dignitaries including the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Shri Pushkar Singh Dhami were present on the occasion.

In his address, Shri Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, on October 30, 2021, for the first time in the country, the work of computerization of Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) started in Uttarakhand and today  computerization of all the 670 PACS of the state has been completed. He said that we had sent model bylaws for MPACS to the state governments some time ago and the work of establishment of 95 MPACS in Uttarakhand has already been completed. Shri Shah said that along with this, Uttarakhand is the first state to start 95 Jan Aushadhi Kendras and Jan Suvidha Kendras under the Cooperative Societies.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi formed a separate Ministry of Cooperation in the country with the vision of “Sehkar Se Mantri”. Through Ministry of Cooperation computerization of all the 65,000 active PACS in the country has started. He said that many facilities including 307 District Cooperative Banks have also been computerized. Shri Shah added, by completing the computerization of 307 cooperative bank branches and 670 MPACS today, the Uttarakhand government has achieved first place in the cooperative sector in the country. He said that computerization would bring complete transparency in the system and audit would be done online which would improve the financial discipline of PACS. Shri Shah said that 95 Jan Suvidha Kendra will deliver more than 300 schemes of the Central Government and the State Government directly to the villages. He added that about 50 to 90 percent cheap medicines would be available to the people through cooperative Jan Aushadhi Kendras. Shri Shah said that the model of integrated collective cooperative farming has been launched today in 95 development blocks of Uttarakhand.

Shri Amit Shah said that on the initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the return of money to about 10 crore depositors who had deposited their money in 4 cooperative societies of Sahara Group. He said that with this historic decision, all the investors of Sahara Group would get their money back. Shri Shah added that all the investors of Sahara Group can send their applications to the Central Registrar so that after verification they can get their money back in 3-4 months.

The Minister of Cooperation said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has taken many new initatives through the mantra of “Sehkar Se Samridhi”. He said that the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is making National Cooperative University, National Cooperative Policy and Cooperative Database. Along with this, Multistate Cooperative Societies have been formed for the seeds, marketing of organic farming and export of farmers' produce. He said that in the coming days, the Nal se Jal (water from tap) Scheme would be handed over to the PACS because in the model bylaws of the multidimensional PACS sent by the Government of India, the PACS would also be able to provide water to the village. He said that now the PACS would be able to do many types of work. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has connected many marginal farmers having small landholdings with many types of businesses by forming the Ministry of Cooperation. He expressed confidence that by making PACS multipurpose, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi  has taken a strong step to increase the income of farmers through cooperatives. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, all the initiatives taken in the field of cooperatives, the government of Uttarakhand led by Shri Pushkar Singh Dhami has implemented them at the grassroots level and it has benefitted the small farmers of Devbhoomi.

*****

RK/AY/AKS