Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said that “there is no database” for the cooperative sector of the country on Wednesday. He was addressing the national conference of Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) in Delhi.
The National Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks’ Federation Ltd (NAFCARD) organized the conference ARDBs-2022. The technical session of the day-long conference is to “deliberate on the roadmap for revival of ARDBs and finalize recommendations for submitting them to the government”.
Shah pointed out that until there is no cooperative database, it’s not possible to think of expanding the cooperative sector. “Neither do we have the database of cooperative societies of fishermen, nor do we have the database of cooperatives working in the irrigation sector”, he added.
The Ministry of Cooperation had started basic work by adding model bye-laws of the Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS). Shah also requested all the members of the cooperative sectors to send their suggestions and practical experiences for model bye-laws of PACS, saying “we want to make PACS multidimensional.”
Even, the Minister said, there is also “no database of how many villages are deprived of the benefit of Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS)”.
Shah also sought the support of ARDBs to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of doubling farmers’ income.
“Without the support of Agricultural Rural Development Banks (ARDBs), we cannot fulfil the vision of PM Modi of doubling the farmer’s income,” Shah said.
The Minister further stressed the need for expansion of long-term finance for the development of the agriculture sector.
He said that ARDBs should also expand their jurisdiction besides only doing financing to achieve the aim of agriculture development. Informing about the role of ARDBs, Shah said over 3 lakh tractors have been financed by these banks and 5.2 lakh farmers have been given long-term finance.
Noting that several ARDBs have done various reforms, the Cooperation Minister emphasised the need for the development of this sector for the development of cooperatives.
He focussed that “long term finance should be more than that of short term finance for the development”.
Speaking at the event, Minister of State for Cooperation BL Verma stressed the need for the modernisation of ARDBs and the increase in their financial condition.
Ministry of Cooperation Secretary Gyanesh Kumar, NCUI President and IFFCO Chairman Dileep Sanghani, President, International Cooperative Alliance- Asia-Pacific Region and Chairman, KRIBHCO Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav also attended the conference.
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