Rawat hails passage of Multi-State Cooperative Society (Amendment) Bill-2022 in LS
Friday, 28 July 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
While hailing the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill-2022 passed in the Lok Sabha, the State Cooperation minister Dhan Singh Rawat stated on Thursday that it would usher in a new era in the cooperative movement in the country. “With new provisions added in this bill, the functioning of cooperative institutions will be more effective, representative and transparent,” he said while thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union minister for Cooperation Amit Shah for facilitating the passage of the historic bill in the Lok Sabha.
While dwelling on the key focuses of the bill, he said that the provision of constituting an election authority empowered to hold free elections would make the cooperative system truly representative. “What is special is that this election authority as enshrined in the provision of the bill will function on the lines of the Election Commission, autonomously, sans governmental interference. Besides, the provisions in the amended bill for appointing cooperative information officer and cooperative ombudsman will make the Multi-state Cooperative Societies function responsibly. Re-elections will be held when one-third of the seats in the board of directors become vacant. It is imperative for the chairman, vice-chairman and members of the committees to call a board meeting every three months. Also, a provision is there in the amended bill to give importance to the equity shareholders,” he said.
Notably, Rawat enhanced the functioning of the cooperative movement in the state by reviving the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), making them viable and multidimensional. Furthermore, 63,000 PACS are being computerised. He said, “All the 670 cooperative committees functioning across the State have been computerised which marks a major achievement for the state. Grain storage capacity is also being increased in the State and new godowns have come up in the hill districts.
The people are increasingly taking advantage of the slew of schemes being run under the cooperative system. As part of implementing Deendayal Upadhyaya Sahakarita Kisan Kalyan Yojana, interest-free loan to the tune of Rs 624.84 crore was distributed to 90,230 beneficiaries in the financial year 2022-23 while from 2017 to June 2023, interest-free loan worth Rs 4,347 crore was made available to over seven lakh beneficiary farmers under this scheme. This is helping the farmers double their income,” Rawat said.
