By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 8 Sep: A conference of cooperatives ministers from across the country was held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, under the leadership of Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah. On behalf of Uttarakhand, Cooperatives Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat participated in the conference. In his address, Rawat said that, at the time when there were PACS committees in Uttarakhand, they had a 22 percent profit. However, when the BJP Government in the state upgraded them to MPAX , they produced 84 percent profit.
Rawat said that with the help of a grant of Rs 3,400 crores given by Prime Minister Narendra Mode under the NCDC project, the government has been able to almost double the income of the farmers.
He said that the Badri Ghee being made with the help of the project was selling at Rs 2,500 per kg on Amazon. He said that, under this scheme, 10 goats, each, were being given free to 15,000 goat rearers and Himalayan goat villages were being built.
Dhan Singh Rawat said the state is successfully running the Minute Mission scheme through a cooperative society. Many local coarse grains including Koda, Jhangora, Mandwa and Red Rice, and beans like Rajma were being purchased by MPax by paying fair prices to the hill farmers and then selling them online in the country and abroad. There was a lot of demand coming for these items from the state. Uttarakhand Cooperative Department is sending Ganga water from Gangotri to the devotees in the country and abroad. New mushroom cultivation units, new apple orchards are being set up in Uttarakhand. Doon Silk was also being promoted bringing the Uttarakhand Cooperative Silk Federation a profit of Rs 1 crore. The cooperative has given a new market for silk in the state.
In the conference, Rawat made a few suggestions which included: A policy to end dominance of particular families in cooperative institutions; bringing Uniform Core Banking Solution of Banking with PACS Computerisation; greater cooperation between PAX and FPO; reducing the limit of collateral security in medium and long term loans; opening campuses of Co-operative University in every state; Assistance for central schemes to the Himalayan states in the ratio of 90:10 and framing of a national policy to make arrangements for transparent recruitment in cooperative institutions.
Secretary, Cooperatives, Dr BVRC Purushottam, Registrar, Cooperatives, Alok Kumar Pandey, additional Registrar Anand Shukla were also present at the conference.
