Cooperative sector to undergo total transformation in 5 years: Shah

Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah has said that with the setting up of a new ministry for cooperation, a revolution in the cooperative sector becomes inevitable. Shah was speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of Panchamrit Dairy, Godhra. Shah dedicated several development works related to co-operatives in the districts of Panchmahal, Malegaon, and Ujjain on Sunday, a day after the mega co-op conclave he attended with the Prime Minister in Gandhinagar.

“Today, as the Cooperation Minister, I want to say that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has established the Ministry of Cooperation, and within five years there will be a big revolution in the cooperative sector under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi. There is talk of adding many new areas, making their database, and arranging training for that. We are also thinking of legal reforms to triple the number of PACS”, stated the Minister.

The Prime Minister not only established a Ministry of Cooperation at the Center and made it a priority but also increased the budget of cooperatives seven-fold, said Shah adding taxes were removed from sugar mills, MAT tax brought at par with companies, and surcharge was reduced from 12 to 7 percent.

The Government of India is also running a program to directly connect all the mandis across the country with NABARD and Rs. 6,500 crore will be spent for this, he underlined.

On the second day of his Gujarat visit, Shah inaugurated and dedicated several developmental works at Panchamrit Dairy, Godhra. He inaugurated a new building of PDC Bank head office, 3 mobile ATM vans, 30 cubic meters per hour capacity oxygen plant built in 250 sqm, dedicated Panchamrit butter cold storage and Dairy Plant at Malegaon (Maharashtra), and laid the foundation stone for the newly established Dairy Plant at Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh). Gujarat CM & Union Minister Shri Purushottam Rupala attended the program.

Amit Shah also referred to Amul on the occasion and said that whenever there is talk about Amul, the eyes of the people at home and abroad are dazzled. It is difficult to imagine a huge cooperative movement with a turnover of Rs. 60 thousand crores.

He informed that recently, Amul has introduced organic wheat flour produced from natural farming in the market and this will be followed by vegetables. Amul has set a target that within a year, laboratories will be set up in more than 100 districts to certify the quality of land and organic products, underlined Shah.