a) the steps being taken by the Government for revival of the cooperative societies in the country;
b) the main obstacles in the cooperative movement in the country; and
c) whether the Government will reorganize the cooperative societies to make them more inclusive and to connect them with the people involved in “Make in India” along with the steps being taken to make them more transparent ?
THE MINISTER OF COOPERATION
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(a)The Country already has a rich cooperative heritage and a robust cooperative sector. There are two types of co-operative structures in the country i.e. State Cooperative Societies and Multi-State Cooperative Societies. The Cooperative Societies functioning in one state only are governed by the laws of the respective State Government and the cooperative societies functioning in more than one state are governed by the central law, namely, ‘the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002 (Act 39 of 2002)’. Any issues related to their administration are dealt at respective levels. However, to give new dimensions and to further promote the cooperative sector in the country through policy and other interventions, Government has created the new Ministry of Cooperation to provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in country.
(b) As per the statistical profile of National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) 2018, there are 8.54 lakh cooperative units in the country. Some of the issues affecting accelerated and equitable growth of cooperatives, inter alia, are lack of effective governance, leadership, professional management in cooperative units and low level of technology adoption.
(c) New National Cooperative Policy and schemes are being drafted with the aim to deepen co-operatives as a true people-based movement reaching up to the grassroots and promote a cooperative based economy model including focus on “Make in India”. This will address developmental issues of cooperatives. Inputs / suggestions of the stakeholders including Central Government Ministries have been sought.
To make the cooperatives more transparent and efficient, the Ministry is formulating projects on relevant interventions viz. creation of a National database of Cooperatives, digitalisation of about 63000 active Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) etc.
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