Delhi: Amit Shah inaugurates National Mega Conclave on FPO in cooperative sector
New Delhi [India], July 15 (ANI): Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah on Friday inaugurated the ‘National Mega Conclave on FPO’ in the cooperative sector and released the action plan for the formation of 1,100 new Farmers Producers’ Organisations by PACS here in the national capital.
In his address, Amit Shah apprised the gathering that Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to set up a separate Ministry of Cooperation “with a different vision”.
“We have to move away from traditional methods and adopt modern methods of agriculture with time to make the country’s marginal farmers prosperous, and PACs FPO is the beginning of this,” Shah said.
He said that the cooperative movement in our country is very old, but after 75 years of independence, “when we look back, it seems that the cooperative movement in the country got divided into many parts.”
He said that from the point of view of cooperatives, the country can be divided into three categories – states, where the cooperative movement has been successful in advancing and strengthening itself, states, where the cooperative movement is still going on, and States, where the cooperative movement is almost dead.
Shah said that in such a large country like India, where about 65 crore people are engaged in agriculture, it has become essential to revive the cooperative movement, modernize it, bring transparency, and aim to achieve new heights.
Shah said that it does not matter whether one has capital or not, but if one has the courage and passion to work hard and the ability to take oneself forward, then the cooperative movement is a great medium for making such people prosperous who lack capital.
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation called upon all the FPOs of the country to continue working in the same manner and keep integrating PACS alongside.
Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah apprised that during the tenure of the current government, the budget allocation for the agriculture sector has increased by 5.6 times. In the year 2013-14, the agriculture budget was Rs 21,000 crore, which has now increased to Rs 1.15 lakh crore in the year 2023-24. Stating the budget figures, he said this showcases the priority given by the government to agriculture.