Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Sunday hailed the strength of the cooperative movement in Maharashtra as he launched the digital portal of the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) office here. He also said there should not be a single sugar mill in Maharashtra that is not producing ethanol.
Speaking on the occasion, Shah said 95 per cent of the work of creating the national cooperative database has been completed. He said the Centre will come up with a New Cooperative Policy.
"1,555 multi-state cooperative societies in India will be benefited by the new portal and 42 per cent of these societies are in Maharashtra. This shows the strength of the cooperative movement in Maharashtra. The culture of cooperatives spread across the country from Maharashtra only and the cooperative model of Maharashtra is taking the cooperative movement forward in the country," he added.
He said the new digital portal is aimed at increasing efficiency and transparency and added that the cooperative sector cannot move forward without modernisation, transparency and accountability.
No sugar mill in Maharashtra should be without ethanol distillery: Shah
"Huge funding is available under various schemes for cooperative societies which can be utilised for setting up distilleries. Sugar mills in the state should avail of the loan facility.There should not be a single sugar mill in Maharashtra that is not making ethanol. It is an emerging market and rates are also good for the same," Shah said.
He said 'Sahakar se Samridhi' is aimed at improving the life of the poor, providing a platform to contribute to the economic progress of the country and raising the poor man's standard of living through cooperatives, which is the objective behind PM Modi's establishing the Ministry of Cooperation.
Shah said India has given many success stories of cooperatives like Amul, IFFCO and KRIBHCO to the world and the need is to give a new momentum to the cooperative movement by taking them along.
He also said, "We are building a cooperative university through which the system of technical education of the cooperative and all its extensions will also be linked".
Shah said the prime minister has created three new multi-state cooperative societies.
"A society has been formed for marketing multi-state organic products, which will ensure marketing of natural farming products with the Bharat Brand and sending the full profit to the farmer's account," he added.
State Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, and Ajit Pawar, who joined the Eknath Shinde-BJP government last month as new Deputy chief minister, were present on the occasion
