UNION Home Minister and Minister of Co-operation Amit Shah chaired a review meeting regarding expansion of cooperatives in State at Hotel MayFair Lake Resort in new capital city Nava Raipur Atal Nagar of Chhattisgarh on Sunday. Amit Shah also launched Primary Agriculture Credit Society (PACS) in the 33 districts to work as Water Committees in their respective districts. Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Vishnu Deo Sai, Union Minister of State for Cooperation Murlidhar Mohol, Deputy Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Arun Sao, Secretary of the Union Ministry of Co-operation Dr Ashish Kumar Bhutani, BJP State President Kiran Singh Deo, BJP leader Pawan Sai and others were present in the meeting. In his address at the Co-operative Review Meeting, Union Minister of Co-operation Shah said that a co-operative society is being formed in every panchayat of the country to realize the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s dream of ‘Sahkar Se Samriddhi’. He said that the Chhattisgarh government should come up with a new public dairy scheme with a focus on tribal development. He said that the scheme should envisage PACS to work like a multi-purpose unit also catering as dairy and fisheries cooperative institutions. Shah further said that all 2058 PACS of Chhattisgarh have adopted the Model Bye-Laws.

 

He said that the National Cooperative Database should be used to find the dry area in Chhattisgarh which will help in the expansion of co-operatives. He stressed that with computerization, every PACS should be made a Common Service Center (CSC) so that the benefits of various activities done by PACS can reach the rural people. Amit Shah said that there should be a contract between NCCF, NAFED and the state for ethanol production so that farmers can be encouraged towards maize cultivation. He said that the cost in maize cultivation is also low and all the maize of the farmers will be purchased by the central government at the Minimum Support Price. Shah said that 100% registration should be done by PACS on NAFED and NCCF portals for the sale of farmers’ agricultural produce. Shah said that it should be mandatory for every trader, PACS and co-operative society of every market to open an account in the District Cooperative Central Bank. Chhattisgarh has 4 co-operative sugar mills out of which only one mill has an ethanol production plant. Shah said that multi-feed ethanol production plants should be set up in the remaining 3 co-operative sugar mills within 6 months so that ethanol can be produced from maize and sugarcane. He said that the central government will help in this regard. He said that there is a need to promote the cultivation of maize and pulses in Chhattisgarh and for this the state agriculture department should take initiative.

 

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah returned to Delhi from Raipur by a special plane on Sunday afternoon. He left Swami Vivekananda Airport Raipur by the special plane at around 3.51 pm. Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma, Food Minister Dayaldas Baghel, Industry Minister Lakhanlal Dewangan, Health Minister Shyam Bihari Jaiswal, Revenue Minister Tankram Verma, Raipur MP Brijmohan Agrawal, MLAs Guru Khushwant Saheb, Anuj Sharma, Rajesh Munat, Dharamlal Kaushik, Amar Agrawal, Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain, Director General of Police Ashok Juneja, other public representatives and senior officers gave farewell to Union Home Minister Shah at Swami Vivekananda Airport Raipur. He was on a three-day visit to Chhattisgarh.