<p>The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday approved a Rs 2,516 crore plan to computerise all the around 63,000 functional Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) in the country in a bid to bring them on a common platform at the national level with a Common Accounting System (CAS) for their day to day business.</p>.<p>The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the ambitious plan even as the Ministry of Cooperation under Amit Shah is planning to form three lakh PACS in the next five years besides reviving defunct ones.</p>.<p>The total budget outlay for the scheme is Rs 2,516 crore of which the Union Government's share will be Rs 1,528 crore. The government believes that this could increase efficiency, bring transparency and accountability, facilitate diversification of their business and undertake multiple activities and become a nodal delivery service point at the panchayat level.</p>.<p>A government statement said the majority of the PACS have not been computerised and are still functioning manually resulting in "inefficiency and trust deficit". While in some states, stand-alone and partial computerization of PACS has been done but there is no uniformity in the software being used by them and they are not interconnected with the district or state cooperative banks.</p>.<p>Sources said the Centre would provide the software to PACS that could be linked to district and state banks as well as NABARD. There are also plans to make PACS multi-purpose by expanding their scope of activities through model bye-laws.</p>.<p>The project comprises the development of cloud-based common software with cyber security and data storage, providing hardware support to the PACS, digitisation of existing records including maintenance support and training. This software will be in vernacular language having the flexibility of customisation as per the needs of the states.</p>.<p>Project Management Units (PMUs) will be set up at central and state levels. District-level support will also be provided at a cluster of about 200 PACS. </p>.<p>In the case of states where computerization of PACS has been completed, Rs 50,000 per PACS will be reimbursed provided they agree to integrate with the common software.</p>.<p>Computerisation of PACS, besides serving the purpose of financial inclusion and strengthening service delivery to farmers especially Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) will also become nodal service delivery points for various services and provision of inputs like fertilisers and seeds, the Ministry said.</p>.<p>Sources said the model bye-laws will be put in the public domain for suggestions in a month. States will be urged to adopt these model bye-laws to enable PACS to act as local banks, storage facilities, locker, PDS shops, and common service centre among others.</p>
<p>The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday approved a Rs 2,516 crore plan to computerise all the around 63,000 functional Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) in the country in a bid to bring them on a common platform at the national level with a Common Accounting System (CAS) for their day to day business.</p>.<p>The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the ambitious plan even as the Ministry of Cooperation under Amit Shah is planning to form three lakh PACS in the next five years besides reviving defunct ones.</p>.<p>The total budget outlay for the scheme is Rs 2,516 crore of which the Union Government's share will be Rs 1,528 crore. The government believes that this could increase efficiency, bring transparency and accountability, facilitate diversification of their business and undertake multiple activities and become a nodal delivery service point at the panchayat level.</p>.<p>A government statement said the majority of the PACS have not been computerised and are still functioning manually resulting in "inefficiency and trust deficit". While in some states, stand-alone and partial computerization of PACS has been done but there is no uniformity in the software being used by them and they are not interconnected with the district or state cooperative banks.</p>.<p>Sources said the Centre would provide the software to PACS that could be linked to district and state banks as well as NABARD. There are also plans to make PACS multi-purpose by expanding their scope of activities through model bye-laws.</p>.<p>The project comprises the development of cloud-based common software with cyber security and data storage, providing hardware support to the PACS, digitisation of existing records including maintenance support and training. This software will be in vernacular language having the flexibility of customisation as per the needs of the states.</p>.<p>Project Management Units (PMUs) will be set up at central and state levels. District-level support will also be provided at a cluster of about 200 PACS. </p>.<p>In the case of states where computerization of PACS has been completed, Rs 50,000 per PACS will be reimbursed provided they agree to integrate with the common software.</p>.<p>Computerisation of PACS, besides serving the purpose of financial inclusion and strengthening service delivery to farmers especially Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) will also become nodal service delivery points for various services and provision of inputs like fertilisers and seeds, the Ministry said.</p>.<p>Sources said the model bye-laws will be put in the public domain for suggestions in a month. States will be urged to adopt these model bye-laws to enable PACS to act as local banks, storage facilities, locker, PDS shops, and common service centre among others.</p>
