NEW DELHI: Seeking to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country, the Union Cabinet today approved setting up of 2 lakh primary agriculture credit societies (PACS) and dairy-fishery cooperatives in left-out villages and panchayats over the next five years.
Briefing the media after a Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said of the nearly 99,000 PACS across the country, 63,000 were functional. There still were 1.6 lakh panchayats without PACS and nearly 2 lakh without any dairy cooperative society, he said. The Cabinet approved steps to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country and deepen its reach at the grassroots level.
The Union Ministry of Cooperation has formulated a plan to establish viable PACS in each uncovered panchayat, viable dairy cooperatives in each uncovered panchayat or village and viable fishery cooperatives in each coastal panchayat or village, the government said in a statement.
“Initially, 2 lakh PACS, dairy or fishery cooperatives would be established over the next five years. The action plan for implementation of the project shall be prepared by NABARD, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and National Fishery Development Board (NFDB),” it said.
The government also said there were a number of schemes that had been identified for convergence under the new plan. These include National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD), and Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) under the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying; Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), and Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development (FIDF) under the Department of Fisheries.
The Cabinet decision would help in providing people with requisite forward and backward linkages to market their produce, enhance their income and obtain credit facilities and other services at the village level itself, it said.
Primary cooperative societies that cannot be revived will be identified for winding up and new ones would be established in their area of operation, the government said, adding that the establishment of new PACS, dairy or fishery cooperative societies would generate employment opportunities in rural areas.
The I&B Minister said a high-level inter-ministerial committee (IMC) under the chairmanship of Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah was being constituted, which would also include the ministers of Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry and Dairying. The secretaries concerned of the ministries will also be on the panel.
Committees at national, state and district levels had also been envisaged to ensure focused and effective execution of the action plan, the minister added. “To increase the viability of PACS and diversify their business activities, the model bylaws of PACS have already been prepared by the Ministry of Cooperation,” Thakur said, adding these had been circulated to all states and UTs on January 5 for their adoption after making suitable changes in their respective state cooperative Acts.
These model bylaws will enable them to undertake more than 25 business activities, which include dairy, fishery, setting up of godowns, procurement of foodgrains, fertilisers, seeds, LPG/CNG/petrol/diesel distributorship, short-term and long-term credit, custom hiring centres, common service centres, fair price shops, community irrigation, business correspondent activities, common service centres, etc.