Agnihotri meets Shah seeks funding for schemes for cooperative sector

Deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri met the Union home minister Amit Shah at New Delhi on Wednesday and urged him to allocate adequate funds to the state for implementation of various schemes in co-operative sector, including computerisation of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), state Programme Management Unit (PMU) and Institute of Cooperative Management (ICM) etc.

Agnihotri apprised the Union minister that the state has already provided requisite land at Panjawar, Una and has provided a grant of ₹5 crore for setting up of ICM, further requesting ₹10 crore as grant-in-aid.

Agnihotri said that Himachal has made great strides in the computerisation project. As many as 870 PACS were identified in first phase, out of which 647 have been made Go-Live. An amount of approx. ₹18.57 crore has been spent on this. While in the second phase, 919 societies have been identified and digitisation work is under progress.

Amit Shah stated that he was aware of the proposals by the cooperative sector and funds would be released soon to ensure the timely completion of the project.

The Union minister assured that Centre would accord all possible help to Himachal Pradesh as far as funding in Cooperative schemes was concerned. It was also discussed to provide funds for Opening of Mahila Cooperative Haats on Pilot basis in the State. The Union minister stated that very soon ministry of cooperation would convene a meeting of central and state officers in this regard.