New Schemes To Be Launched This Year Under Co-operation Ministry: Amit Shah

The Central government will introduce new schemes to strengthen cooperative societies from the financial year 2022-23 onwards, Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah told the Parliament on Wednesday.

Shah in his written reply to the Upper House said that currently there was only scheme, the Central Sector Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Cooperation (CSISAC), for promotion and development of the cooperative sector across the country.

Assistance to National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), Cooperative Education and Training; and National Cooperative Federation is given under CSISAC, the Union minister informed.

He said, “With the formation of a new ministry, the introduction of new schemes from the financial year 2022-23 onwards is envisaged”.

Notably, the new ministry, Ministry of Cooperation was set up in July 2021 in a bid to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country.

Shah said that the new ministry has already started functioning. National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), a statutory corporation, and National Council for Cooperative Training (NCCT), a registered society, come under the administrative control of the ministry.

The government has proposed allocation of ₹900 crore for the cooperation ministry in the Budget announced on Tuesday.

Responding to a query, the Union Home minister said that the government aimed to achieve overall prosperity in the country through the mantra of ‘Sahakar Se Smriddhi’ (prosperity through cooperation).

To strengthen cooperatives, the proposal to bring transparency, modernization and creating competitiveness was in place, he said.

The government was putting together a new National Cooperation Policy in order to achieve it, Shah added. It has started consultations with various stakeholders including various ministries/ departments of central governments, state governments, Cooperative Federations, NABARD and other major cooperative institutions of the country.

The government intends to work with the states and has started consultations with them on various issues related to cooperatives, he said.

Shah said, "For instance, inputs and suggestions on the proposed New Cooperation Policy have so far been received from 35 stakeholders, including 10 ministries and six state governments".

Further responding to a query on whether the government had developed a system to maintain classified data on the cooperatives, Shah said that at the moment, the government did not have any updated authentic data repository about cooperatives, their activities, their members, their financial details, etc.

He said, “However, the government is planning to develop a national database for cooperatives and is accordingly engaged in consultations with stakeholders”.

He further said that the proposed project for the computerization of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) to strengthen the financial health of cooperative banks is expected to bring efficiency and accountability to the rural credit system in the country.

“No specific study has been done to assess the impact of the pandemic on the cooperative sector in India”, he said while replying to another question on the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on cooperatives.

However, he said, the Centre has given Covid-19 relief through various measures and packages from time to time to mitigate challenges faced by different sectors.