New Delhi, Sep 10 :Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, a new ministry of Cooperation was set up on 06th July 2021 with an objective to provide renewed impetus to the growth of Cooperative Sector and realization of vision from Cooperation to Prosperity. Under the dynamic guidance of Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah, Ministry of Cooperation is working incessantly for development of cooperative sector, in collaboration with all State Governments and other stakeholders.
In this background, a two-day Conference of State Cooperation Ministers was organized by Ministry of Cooperation at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 08-09 September, 2022. On the opening day, the conference began with welcome speech of Minister of State for Cooperation, Shri B. L. Verma and inaugural address by the Union Home & Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah.
On day one of the conference yesterday, State Ministers of Cooperation, Lt. Governors of UTs and several senior officials put their thoughts forward on a number of sectors associated with Cooperation.
In the two-day conference, Cooperation Ministers from 21 states and Lt. Governors of 2 UTs, Shri Gyanesh Kumar, Secretary (M/o Cooperation, Government of India), Shri Vijay Kumar, Additional Secretary and Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Chief and Addl. Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and the Registrar of Cooperative Societies of the States/UTs shared their views and suggestions for strengthening the cooperative sector. All States/UTs made presentation and shared their best practices amongst themselves.
Deliberations were held on various important themes including – National Cooperation Policy, National Cooperative Database, New Proposed Schemes of Ministry of Cooperation viz. PACS in every Panchayat, Export of Agro-based and other products, promotion and marketing of Organic Products, expansion of Co-operatives to New Areas. Further, Subjects related to PACS and Model Bye-Laws including PACS Computerization, Action Plan for Revitalization of defunct PACS, Model Bye-Laws of PACS were also discussed along with issues related to Primary Co-operative Societies regarding prioritizing long term financing, Milk Co-operative Societies and Fish Cooperative Societies etc.
NCDC being a leader in cooperative financing informed about the prospects and avenues of lending to the Cooperative sector, with facilitation through its Regional Directorates across States.
Shri Gyanesh Kumar, Secretary, (Ministry of Cooperation, Government of India) highlighted the strength of Cooperative movement in the Country and requested States to adopt the state of art Software along with up-to-date hardware under the Project on Computerization of PACS, as approved by the Government of India. Further, to give boost to the export of Cooperatives, the Ministry is facilitating registration of a National Level Cooperative Export House under MSCS Act 2002, that will work in close coordination with Union Ministry of External Affairs and Union Ministry of Commerce to harness the export potential of nearly 30 Crore people associated with the Cooperative movement. The Secretary (Cooperation) also briefed about the Multi-State Cooperative Society being registered for production, procurement, branding and marketing Organic products and Quality Seeds. He further conveyed that Ministry of Cooperation has been taking action to ensure that cooperatives are treated at par with the other economic forms.
The conference concluded with the resolve of all stakeholders to work together for giving impetus to cooperative based economic model in the country to realize the mantra of Sahkar Se Samaridhi.
