He Means Business: Amit Shah In Action Ahead of Assuming Charge Of Ministry Of Cooperation

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday met some leading figures of the country’s cooperative sector on Saturday and assured them that the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is determined to make cooperatives and all cooperative institutions more empowered. “Under the leadership of Modi ji, we are determined to make cooperatives and all cooperative institutions more empowered,” Shah tweeted in Hindi.

The meeting came three days after the prime minister reallocated the portfolios of his ministers in which Shah was given the charge of the newly created Ministry of Cooperation. Even though Shah has not yet assumed the charge of the ministry of cooperation, he has begun to meet people.

The Ministry of Cooperation:

The government of India has recently carved out a new ministry for cooperation, which earlier was a small department in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The Ministry of Cooperation will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country, according to a press release from the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

In the release, the government also informed that the new ministry will work for improving ‘ease of doing business’ for cooperatives by streamlining processes to enable the development of Multi-State Cooperative Societies (MSCS).

Cooperatives are enterprises which are owned, controlled and run by a group of people who aim to realise common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations. Cooperative societies function for a common benefit with a motive to help its members. In India, the cooperative societies have played a major role in improving the rural economy.

Meeting with Cooperative Sector Leaders:

Those who met the home minister include chairman of the National Cooperative Union of India Dileep Sanghani, the chairman and the managing director of the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) B S Nakai and U S Awasthi respectively and chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) Bijender Singh. “Today met @ncuicoop Chairman Shri Dileep Sanghani ji, @IFFCO_PR Chairman Shri B S Nakai ji, Managing Director Shri U S Awasthi ji and @nafedindia Chairman Dr Bijendra Singh ji.

Shah’s Action Plan:

In the meeting, Amit Shah asked cooperatives like IFFCO and KRIBHCO to work in the field of seed production using vacant land of 38,000 hectares as well as in organic farming, the NCUI said in a separate statement. The minister also assured that the government is committed to strengthening the cooperative movement in the country, the benefits of which would go to the grass-root level cooperatives, it said.

Shah also assured the delegation that the same benefits and concessions given to Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) will be provided to primary agriculture cooperatives in the country for strengthening them, it added. In the meeting, the minister desired that a conference with representatives of state-level cooperatives should be organized by NCUI, IFFCO and other cooperatives for discussing pertinent issues confronting the cooperative movement.

The delegation also apprised the minister about the problems and challenges confronting the cooperative movement.

(With inputs from PTI)

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here.