Centre to announce new cooperative policy soon

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Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on September 25 said a new cooperative policy will be soon coming out from the centre and will coordinate with states to the strengthen the same, by working in tandem. He also asserted that cooperatives will also play a crucial role in making India a $5 trillion economy. Shah also announced that the Primary Agriculture Cooperative (PACs) societies in the next five years will be increased to 3 lakh. Currently, there are about 65,000 PACs.

He added that the government is working on setting up cooperative common service centres, national database besides a national cooperative university.

Centre-state effort

While speaking at the first Sehkarita Sammelan or National Cooperative Conference, comprising over 2,100 representatives of different cooperatives and nearly 6 crore online participants, he said that the Centre, he stressed, will cooperate with states and there will be no friction.

We will work with all states to take forward the cooperative movement, he said, and added the Ministry of Cooperation has been formed to strengthen and modernise the sector.

Stating that there is a need to make cooperatives survive in a competitive environment, the minister said a new cooperative policy will be brought as part of the government’s ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ initiative to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of progressive India.

Earlier a policy was brought in 2002 by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and now the Modi government will start working on a new policy, he said.

Besides this, the government is going to amend the Multi State Cooperatives Act as well as modernise and digitalise PACs in the country. The Ministry of Cooperation was formed in July this year.