Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah addressed the 91st General Council meeting of the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) in New Delhi, emphasizing the Central Government’s commitment under Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s leadership to improving the lives of farmers and citizens through the cooperative movement. He underlined the government’s efforts to make India self-reliant through cooperation, highlighting NCDC’s crucial role in this transformative journey.
Shri Amit Shah praised NCDC for its impactful contributions to the cooperative sector, noting its disbursements exceeding ₹60,000 crore as a testament to its ability to strengthen the rural economy and foster cooperative growth. He stressed the significance of White Revolution 2.0, urging the promotion of milk cooperative unions, particularly in the North Eastern States, through collaboration between the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and NCDC. This initiative, he said, would empower tribal communities and women while advancing the dairy sector.
The Minister proposed innovative solutions, including establishing an app-based Cab Cooperative Society Service to ensure equitable profit distribution to drivers and strengthening Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) with the support of a robust National Cooperative Database. Shri Shah also announced a comprehensive five-year plan to enhance sugar mills’ financial capacity, targeting an increase in funding to ₹25,000 crore, and encouraged exploring deep-sea trawling in coastal states like Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala.
He highlighted the newly introduced Cooperative Intern Scheme, implemented by NCDC, aimed at aligning State and District cooperative banks with central government schemes and bolstering PACS. Shri Shah called for the creation of a Cooperative University to advance the principles of cooperation and proposed capability development programs to nurture talent in the sector, promoting the vision of Sahakar Se Samriddhi (Prosperity through Cooperation). These measures, he stated, would further empower the cooperative movement and enhance socio-economic growth nationwide.
