Modi govt laid foundation of strong rural development in last 10 years: Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government is to complete its 10 years in May, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Tuesday said it laid the foundation of a "strong rural development".

Shah's statement came after he launched the computerization project of Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) and the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCSs) of all States and Union Territories here in the national capital.

This event was organized by the Ministry of Cooperation in collaboration with the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).

Speaking at the event, the Minister said that the Modi government of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is to complete its 10 years in May.

"In the last 10 years, Modi government has done two major works-- one to bring 23 crore people of the country out of poverty and providing facilities like electricity as well as a free ration to 60 crore poor, and the second is the establishment of Ministry of Cooperative to bring self-employment," said Shah.

"BJP's Modi government has laid the foundation of a strong rural development," he added.

Shah said the computerization of ARDB and RCS offices of all States and UTs is one of the several important steps taken by the Ministry of Cooperation towards realizing Prime Minister Modi's vision of "Sahkar Se Samriddhi".

The project, under the aegis of the Ministry of Cooperation, Shah said, shows the commitment of the Modi government to modernize the cooperative sector and enhance efficiency by bringing the entire cooperative ecosystem on a digital platform.

The Computerization Project of ARDBs aims at computerizing 1,851 units of ARDBs located in 13 States and UTs and link them with NABARD through a Common National software, said the Minister, adding "This initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation will increase the operational efficiency, accountability and transparency in ARDB by standardizing business procedures through Common Accounting System (CAS) and Management Information System (MIS)."

"It will cost around Rs 225 crores for the computerisation of the offices of the Agricultural and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) and Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) in all States and UTs," Shah mentioned.

Furthermore, the initiative aims at reducing transaction costs, facilitating loan distribution to farmers and enabling real-time data access for better monitoring and assessment of schemes.

This will benefit small and marginal farmers, connected with ARDBs for credit and related services through Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACSs) at the grassroots level.

Under the second major initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation, the aim is the Computerization of offices of RCS in all States and UTs, motivating RCS offices for paperless functioning and implementing an IT-oriented workflow in accordance with the Cooperative Acts and Regulations of the sSates and UTs.

Along with this, its targets also include better efficiency, accountability and transparency in RCS offices, setting up analytics and MIS and ensuring linkage with the national database.

As part of the major initiatives of the Ministry of Cooperation, the PACSs across the country are being computerized and linked to NABARD through Common National Software. The PACSs are also being enabled to start digital services by taking them on board as Common Service Centers (CSCs).

So far more than 50,000 PACSs have been onboarded as CSCs and over 30,000 have already started providing services. In addition to this, the Ministry of Cooperation has set up a new National Cooperative Database containing data from more than 8 lakh cooperative societies and this database will be launched soon and made available to all stakeholders.

More than 1,200 participants will attend Tuesday's event, including senior officials of all States and Union Territories, secretaries of cooperative departments and Registrars of Cooperative Societies, Presidents of all State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs), representatives of Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (PCARDBs) and ARDB units.