The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah addressed the program of distribution of store codes for operation of Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Jan Aushadhi Kendra to PACS of 5 states in New Delhi today. Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals & Fertilizers Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Cooperation Shri B.L. Verma and many other dignitaries were present on this occasion.

Addressing the seminar, Shri Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, it has been decided to strengthen the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) financially by linking them with other works and today this objective has been expanded. He said that 2373 PACS across the country are being established as affordable medicine shops i.e. Jan Aushadhi Kendras. This step has been taken to realize the guarantee given by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He said that Jan Aushadhi Kendras are mostly located in urban areas, due to which only the poor of the city used to get their benefits and they used to get affordable medicines ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 30, but now through PACS, affordable medicines will also be available for the poor of rural areas and farmers.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that for years, Bharat has been a leader in the world in the field of pharmacy and in the last 10 years, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has made a lot of reforms in the field of pharmacy and today Bharat has become a trusted producer of the pharmaceutical sector in the whole world. But there was an irony, that in Bharat, which sends medicines to the whole world, 60 crores people couldn't get medicines because they were not able to buy medicines due to the medicines being expensive. But Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi took forward the idea of Jan Aushadhi Kendra and by streamlining the system of generic medicines, created such a program that every poor can get medicines at a cost of 8 percent to 30 percent. This has led to a great improvement in the health sector in rural areas.

Shri Amit Shah said that in the last nine years, about Rs 25,000 crore of the poor of the country have been saved through Jan Aushadhi Kendras. He said that now the reach of Jan Aushadhi Kendras is going to increase in rural areas through the cooperative sector and in the coming days, quality medicines will be available to the rural poor at affordable rates. He expressed happiness that the cooperative sector is going to be the medium in this initiative.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that this confluence of cooperation and health is a confluence of prosperity and good health. He said that today PACS have been started through the cooperative sector in many states and about 2300 primary cooperative societies in the states of Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and North East are providing affordable medicines in rural areas.

Shri Amit Shah said that today symbolic certificates have also been given to five PACS from different parts of the country which include Maharashtra, Bihar, Jammu Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. He said that the Ministry of Cooperation has done a lot of work under the successful leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for the expansion of cooperatives. Under this, the Ministry of Cooperation has increased the reach of cooperatives and through 56 cooperatives, the ministry of cooperation has brought prosperity to the poor. He said that the Ministry of Cooperation has set a target of creating 2 lakh new PACS in the next 5 years and there will be one PACS in every Panchayat of every village in the country. Shri Shah said that we have to move forward with the resolve to fulfill Shri Narendra Modi’s dream of making the poorest of the poor prosperous through cooperation by the year 2047.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that the blueprint for cooperation cannot be prepared without the basis of PACS. He said that when the ministry decided to create 2 lakh new PACS, there was a discussion as to why the movement lagged behind and why the PACS were closed. From this, it emerged from the analysis that there was no provision to include any work other than agriculture credit in the bye-laws of PACS. Therefore, we first prepared model bye-laws and sent it to all the states and discussed it extensively. Today all the PACS in the country have adopted the model bye-laws. New PACS are also being registered under the model bye-laws.

Shri Shah said that earlier big PACS used to largely do the work of credit agencies, but now PACS have also been linked to the work of micro ATMs and Kisan Credit Cards. Now Animal Husbandry Promotion Center & CSC can also be opened in PACS and railway tickets can also be booked.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah said that it has been decided to give priority to PACS for LPG dealerships also. Whatever obstacles which were there  in the functioning of petrol pumps have been removed by the Petroleum Ministry. Now PACS can also run petrol pumps. He said that about 27 states have also authorized PACS to organize the ‘Har Ghar Nal se Jal’ campaign for every household. Along with this, PACS will also be able to run affordable medicine shops and ration shops. Today 35000 PACS are involved in the distribution of fertilizers in the country. We have added 22 different types of works under the new Byelaws, due to which now PACS cannot be closed and they will get huge profits.

Shri Amit Shah said that with the ‘Prime Minister Storage’ facility provided by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, PACS can now build a modern warehouse with much less capital. Through this, it will not only become a center for storing paddy and wheat of their tehsil and the state, it will also provide convenience to the farmers to keep their produce there for some time. He said that in the next three years the country's PACS will have the world's largest storage capacity.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that in a span of 6 months, 4470 PACS applications have been received from 34 states and union territories, out of which 2373 have been fully approved. Of these, 248 PACS have started their work. He said that despite many challenges, PACS has proved that they too can do business.

Shri Shah said that led by Secretary of the Ministry of Cooperation several rounds of meetings have been held with the Pharmacy Council of India, Pharmacy Council of all the states and all the state governments regarding ‘Jan Aushadhi Kendra’. 40 field officers have also been nominated who will assist the PACS in conducting it smoothly. He said that a lot of reforms have been done for PACS. 84000 PACS model Bye-Laws have been adopted, Rs 2516 crore has been given by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for computerization of PACS, through which all PACS will do 20 new types of work. The work of computerizing 62000 PACS has started, trials are going on in 10080 PACS and 1800 PACS have been completely computerized. He said that currently 28 thousand PACS, working as CSC, are providing more than 300 services of the Government of India to the public.

The Minister of Cooperation Shri Shah appealed to all the PACS representatives who came to the mega seminar to follow the bye-laws carefully. Read every scheme of the Ministry of Cooperation, Government of India by visiting its website, and move forward in such a way that every PACS becomes a center of energy and development in your village.

Shri Amit Shah said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has started many programs for the health of the people of the country. There is no scheme like Ayushman Bharat Yojana anywhere in the world. Under this, the Government of India is bearing the entire cost of treatment up to Rs 5 lakh for 60 crore people. Along with this, Mission Indradhanush is proving helpful in providing all types of vaccinations to every child in the population of 130 crores. A plan is underway to provide fluoride-free pure drinking water to every household through the Jal Jeevan Mission. Apart from this, cleanliness and health programs are being run through many programs like Yoga, AYUSH, Fit India. Arrangements for toilets have been made in every house.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given the world a new Bharatiya model of living a life without medicine by combining all three, AYUSH, natural farming and organic products. He said that the country's health budget in the year 2014 was Rs 33000 crore. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi increased it to Rs 90000 crore. Along with this, the per capita expenditure on health has increased from Rs 1000 to Rs 2000. Rs 200 crore is being spent on digital health infrastructure whereas earlier there was no such allocation.

Shri Shah said that by weaving a network of many programs like Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, Ayushman Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Health Infrastructure Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, National Health Mission, Malaria Free India, Mission Indradhanush for universal vaccination, TB Eradication programme, Matru Vandana Yojana, Janani Suraksha Yojana, National Mental Health Programme, Fit India, Khelo India and Dialysis Programme, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has worked to improve the health of the poor, especially children and adolescents. He said that under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana, today the number of Jan Aushadhi Centers has increased to more than 10,000, in which more than 2260 medicines and equipment are available.

The Minister of Cooperation said that India ranks first in the world's pharma sector in supplying generic medicines, vaccines and affordable HIV medicines. We are second in producing pharma and biotech professionals. India ranks third in the world in overall production of medicines. He expressed confidence that by the year 2047, India will become number one in the world in all fields and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's dream of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ will be fulfilled. He said that earlier Bharat used to export medicines worth Rs 90145 crore to the world, but now it is exporting medicines worth Rs 183000 crore. He said that many countries across the world were not able to make the vaccine, but under the leadership of the Prime Minister, our scientists not only developed the vaccine but also delivered to the poorest of the poor in every village of the country, both the vaccine and the certificate which protected them from Corona.

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RK/ AKS/ PR/ AK