The Central Government will form a Co-operative Life Insurance Company. Amit Shah has announced this. Union Minister Amit Shah said on Monday that a cooperative life insurance company will be set up to promote the development of the cooperative sector in the country. Speaking at a program organized on the occasion of the fifth foundation day of the Ministry of Cooperation in the national capital, Shah said that the establishment of the ministry has given new energy to India’s cooperative movement, which was made a neglected movement during the Congress rule. The Cooperation Minister said that Bharat Taxi is performing well and it will be expanded to 500 cities in the next two years.
Amit Shah said, on the lines of Bharat Taxi, we will set up a life insurance company in the cooperative sector. This will help in the development of cooperative institutions in the insurance sector. He told that IFFCO, a cooperative in the fertilizer sector, is already in the insurance business through a joint venture with a Japanese company.
More than 30 crore members in cooperative institutions
There are about 8.5 lakh cooperative societies in India, which have more than 30 crore members. The Minister mentioned the steps taken by the Ministry in the last five years, including efforts to bring transparency and professionalism in the cooperative system. He said that the Ministry has prepared a database of the cooperative sector, which will help in the expansion of cooperative institutions in the country.
Shah said that Tribhuvan Cooperative University is being established in Anand, Gujarat for capacity building, which will deal with the problem of human resources. Cooperative institutions have expanded into many sectors and are no longer limited to just dairy, sugar and fertilizer businesses.
Shah expressed confidence that the cooperative sector will play an important role in building a developed India by the year 2047. Referring to the apprehension of the Central Ministry interfering in the jurisdiction of the states, he said that in the last five years, even the Congress ruled states did not complain that the Central Ministry had interfered in their jurisdiction.
Shah said, the objective of the Union Ministry is not to interfere in the matters of the states. Its purpose is to make policies. The minister said that the governments of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have always worked for all-round development in the interest of the poor.
‘Destroyed the cooperative mechanism on Congress’
Union Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh accused Congress of destroying the cooperative system and said that at that time this area was ruled by the mafia. He said that on the other hand, the NDA government has strengthened the cooperative sector. Singh said that the dairy cooperative system is being expanded to make the dairy sector more organized. About 40 percent of the dairy sector is still unorganized.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma also alleged that the Congress government had made the cooperative sector a den of corruption. During the event, Shah laid the foundation stone and inaugurated several major projects and initiatives. These initiatives included transfer of 135 warehouses with capacity of 75,000 tonnes, inauguration of 85 warehouses and virtual foundation stone laying of 47 grain storage warehouses.
Apart from this, Bhoomi Pujan of ‘Sahakar Van’ by Amul and National Cooperative Consumer Federation (NCCF) and Bhoomi Pujan of tissue culture facilities of Indian Seed Cooperative Society Limited were also performed at Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh and Jalgaon in Maharashtra.
Signing of memorandum to strengthen the seed system
Another major achievement of the program was the conversion of 50,000 primary agricultural cooperatives into e-Paks, which is an important step towards digital empowerment of grassroots cooperatives. During the program, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed between the Indian Seed Cooperative Society Limited and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research for strengthening the seed system.
Shah also released model bye-laws for dairy cooperative societies and a book based on the achievements of the Ministry of Cooperation in the last five years. The Ministry reiterated its commitment to develop a cooperative ecosystem connecting farmers, women, youth, small producers, dairy farmers, urban cooperatives and rural institutions with the vision of prosperity through cooperation and a developed and self-reliant India.
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