PACS Will Not Become Financially Sick: Amit Shah

As per National Cooperative Database, till now 3,654 new multipurpose PACS, 8,256 dairy and 990 fishery cooperatives have been registered since the launch of the initiative

Union Minister Amit Shah, who also holds the Cooperation portfolio, has said that the Centre had taken measures to prevent registered PACS from becoming financially sick and will soon bring a policy for their quick settlement in case they have gone into liquidation and for registration of new PACS in their place.

He said that the Union Government aims to set up two lakh new Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) by 2029. They are being connected to 22 different types of businesses, with arrangements being made to ensure registered PACS do not become financially sick.

"The work of connecting 22 different types of businesses with PACS has been done. I am sure arrangements have been made to ensure that not a single registered PACS becomes sick in the coming times," Shah said at a gathering that was celebrating the International Year of Cooperatives.

In a short time, the Centre is going to bring a new policy for quick settlement of PACS that have gone into liquidation and for registration of new PACS in their place, he added. The Union Minister said initiative is also being taken to involve "a cooperative-owned company" for manufacturing equipment such as those for making ice cream, cheese, paneer, keeping milk chilled as well as measuring fat as part of promoting a circular economy in the dairy sector.

In a short time, the government also plans experimentation with a circular economy in the dairy sector by forming a cooperative society for the use of skin, bones, and horns of animals when they die.

"If the cooperative sector has to move forward, then we will have to make efforts to bring awareness, training and transparency in every group.

The Cooperative Department of the Union government has set this as the goal of the Cooperative Year. Therefore, the Centre has given importance to both Science of Cooperation and Science in Cooperation - reviving and modernising the science of cooperation and the use of technology in cooperatives," he added.

Shah said that the cooperative movement had ended in many parts of the country, except for Gujarat. But it is the responsibility of the cooperative leaders of Gujarat to make the movement symmetric, he added.

In order to make the cooperative sector strong, changes that it has gone through in recent years should be taken to the bottom level to benefit PACS members and farmers, Shah said.

"Every district, every state should be associated with the cooperative movement, the condition of primary mandali in every state should improve, strengthening district level institutions, which in turn should strengthen cooperative structure at the state and national level. To achieve this, the Union government has envisioned a fourth-tier cooperative structure in place of a three-tier structure," he said.

"We want to use the International Year of Cooperatives for this symmetric development. The entire campaign is based on three pillars - making cooperation a part of the mainstream of the society, bringing transparency and authenticity in the cooperative movement through technology, and accelerating the work of connecting more and more citizens to the cooperative movement," he said.

For this, the ministry has taken about 57 initiatives. There is need for cooperation among cooperatives, an idea which has been implemented in Gujarat leading to an increase of Rs 11,000 crore in the deposits of the cooperative sector, Shah asserted. The Government had on February 15, 2023 approved the plan for strengthening cooperative movement in the country and deepening its reach up to the grassroots. The plan entails establishment of new multipurpose PACS, dairy and fishery cooperative societies covering all panchayats/ villages, including the underserved regions in the next five years, through convergence of various existing GOI schemes. They include DID, NPDD, and PMMSY with the support of NABARD, NDDB, NFDB and state governments.

In order to ensure effective and timely implementation of the plan, Ministry of Cooperation in coordination with NABARD, NDDB and NFDB launched a Standard Operating Procedure (Margdarshika) on September 19, 2024, indicating the targets and timelines for all stakeholders concerned. As per Margdarshika, a joint working committee (JWC) has been formed at the district level by states/ UTs to ensure timely execution of the plan at the grassroot level.

As per National Cooperative Database, till now 3,654 new multipurpose PACS, 8,256 dairy and 990 fishery cooperatives have been registered since the launch of the initiative.

The Centre is implementing the project for computerisation of functional PACS with a total financial outlay of Rs 2,516 crore, which entails bringing all the functional PACS onto an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) based common national software, linking them with NABARD through state cooperative banks (SCBs) and DCCBs. This software is customizable for state-specific needs.

Approximately, 50,455 PACS have been onboarded on ERP software, while the hardware has been procured by 30 States/UTs.