DC Ganderbal chairs DCDC meeting

Ganderbal, Oct 16: In order to make primary agriculture credit societies (PACS) economically vibrant entities by diversifying their business activities at the grass-roots level, a meeting of the District Level Cooperative Development Committee (DCDC) was today chaired by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ganderbal at VC Room here.

At the outset, a detailed discussion was held on various agenda points including the status of the adoption of Model Bye-laws by PACS, status of hardware purchase, targets for establishing new multipurpose PACS, formation of FPOs by PACS, identification of PACS for convergence with PM-KUSUM scheme, establishment of Jan Aushadhi Kendras by PACS and other initiatives.

While discussing the agenda points, the DC stressed the importance of the Cooperative movement and how it benefits society on a large scale for their economic empowerment and income generation.

During the meeting, Deputy Registrar Cooperative Ganderbal presented an overview of the present status of Cooperative Societies in the district besides deliberating upon the work being done to strengthen the Cooperative movement across the district.

The committee was informed that the Ministry of Cooperation, Ministry of Electronics and IT, NABARD and CSC e-governance service India Ltd has signed a Memorandum of Understanding enabling PACS to undertake CSC services. Under this initiative, more than 300 e-services in rural areas including banking, insurance, health services, bus/air/rail tickets etc shall be provided by the PACS.

In order to further diversify the business activities of PACS to make them vibrant economic entities, the DC directed the Deputy Registrar Cooperative Ganderbal to provide handholding to PACS in carrying diversified activities like opening up of Jan Aushadhi Kendra, LPG/ Petrol/ Diesel distribution outlets and CSCs. He further emphasized on timely adoption of model by-laws by all registered PACS to make them economic generation resources.

The DC also directed for identification of PACS for convergence with the PM-KUSUM scheme for promoting green energy so that farmers associated with PACS can replace Agricultural Diesel Pumps with solar agricultural water pumps and ensure their energy security by installing photovoltaic modules on the periphery of their land.