Haridwar (Uttarakhand) [India], March 30 (ANI): In a first-of-its-kind achievement in India, the work of computerisation of all the 670 Multipurpose Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Societies (MPACS) of Uttarakhand completed on Thursday, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurating the project started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2021.

Addressing the event, Shah said, "Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on October 30, 2021, for the first time in the country, the work of computerization of PACS started in Uttarakhand and today computerization of all the 670 PACS of the state has been completed."The minister said many facilities, including 307 District Cooperative Banks, have also been computerised.

By completing the computerisation of 307 cooperative bank branches and 670 MPACS on Thursday, the Uttarakhand government achieved first place in the cooperative sector in the country, stated Shah.

He said the computerisation would bring complete transparency to the system and audits would be done online, which would improve the financial discipline of PACS.

Shah inaugurated the project along with several other development works in the state during his day-long visit to Uttarakhand's Haridwar.

The Home Minister inaugurated the computerisation of Uttarakhand's MPACS, joint cooperative farming, Jan Suvidha Kendras and Janaushadhi Kendras in Uttarakhand's Haridwar on Thursday.

Many dignitaries, including Uttarakhand Chief Minister of Pushkar Singh Dhami, were present on the occasion.

At the event, Shah said, "We had sent model bylaws for MPACS to the state governments some time ago and the work of establishment of 95 MPACS in Uttarakhand has already been completed."Shah said along with this, Uttarakhand is the first state to start 95 Jan Aushadhi Kendras and Jan Suvidha Kendras under the Cooperative Societies.

The minister said that PM Modi formed a separate Ministry of Cooperation in the country with the vision of "Sehkar Se Mantri", and through the Ministry of Cooperation "computerization of all the 65,000 active PACS in the country has started".

Shah said that 95 Jan Suvidha Kendra will deliver more than 300 schemes of the Central government and the state government directly to the villages.

He added that about 50 to 90 per cent of cheap medicines would be available to the people through cooperative Jan Aushadhi Kendras.

Shah said that the model of integrated collective cooperative farming has been launched today in 95 development blocks of Uttarakhand.

The Home minister also said that on the initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the return of money to about 10 crore depositors who had deposited their money in 4 cooperative societies of Sahara Group.

He said with this historic decision, all the investors of Sahara Group would get their money back, and added that all the investors of Sahara Group can send their applications to the Central Registrar so that after verification they can get their money back in 3-4 months.

The Union Home minister said the government is making National Cooperative University, National Cooperative Policy and Cooperative Database under its various initiatives in the cooperative sector.

Along with this, Multistate Cooperative Societies have been formed for the seeds, marketing of organic farming and export of farmers' produce.

He said that in the coming days, "The Nal se Jal (water from tap) Scheme would be handed over to the PACS because in the model bylaws of the multidimensional PACS sent by the Government of India, the PACS would also be able to provide water to the village."Noting that the PACS would be able to do many types of work now, Shah said Prime Minister Modi has connected many marginal farmers having small landholdings with many types of businesses by forming the Ministry of Cooperation.

He said by making PACS multipurpose, PM Modi has taken a strong step to increase the income of farmers through cooperatives.

"All the initiatives taken in the field of cooperatives, the Uttarakhand government led by Pushkar Singh Dhami has implemented them at the grassroots level and it has benefitted the small farmers of Devbhoomi," added Shah. (ANI)