New policy to strengthen cooperative movement: Amit Shah

Shah said that out of 30 lakh cooperatives in the world, there are about nine lakh cooperatives in India that cater to about 91% of the villages

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that the Centre is in the process of coming out with a "comprehensive policy document" to not only strengthen the cooperative movement, but also promote a cooperative-based economic development model at the grassroots.

Addressing a cooperative beneficiaries' conference in Bengaluru, Shah said that a multi-purpose cooperative society (MCS) will be formed in every panchayat and the union government is in the process of forming two lakh such societies in the next three years.

Shah pointed out that with the formation of such MCS, the turnover as well as the number of beneficiaries in the cooperative sector would see a three-fold increase.

The minister said that out of 30 lakh cooperatives in the world there are about nine lakh cooperatives in India that cater to about 91 per cent of the villages.

“Through Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) the cooperatives cover 70 per cent of the farmers of the country," he said. "About 19 per cent of our agriculture finance is through cooperative societies, 35 per cent fertiliser distribution, 30 per cent fertiliser production, 40 per cent sugar production, 13 per cent wheat and 20 per cent paddy procurement is through cooperatives. Hence the cooperative sector needs robust mechanism to handle future challenges. So, we're coming out with a comprehensive policy,” he explained.

He emphasised that the union government is also planning to set up a national level university in the cooperative sector to supply the trained manpower in the days to come.

Spelling out future plans, Shah contended that formation of multi-state cooperative unit (MCU) is the need of hour in sectors like selling organic products at global level and selling quality seeds in the country besides setting up warehouses and export houses.

“We have examples like Amul and Nandini, which are huge brand in themselves. We need to create many more such brands in various sectors,” he said and added that with the union government already deciding to give licenses for doorstep banking, the new policy will also look to expand the functioning scope of NABARD and National Cooperative Development Corporation’s (NCDC) roles in strengthening and streamlining the cooperative finances.