Varanasi: The co-operative societies working in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is witnessing extensive changes under the “Sahakar Se Samriddhi Yojana” run by the cooperative department of the Uttar Pradesh government.
According to the chief development officer, Hemant Nagpal, the name and objectives of Sadhan Sahakari Samiti Limited have been changed to Bahu-Uddeshiye Prathmik Gramin Cooperative. Samiti (B-PACS). Extensive changes have been made in the bye-laws of the committee and their work has been reshuffled.
The CDO said that in order to meet the short-term needs of the farmers, loans are being made available to them by the committees at the rate of 3%. Quality fertilizers and agricultural protection chemicals and seeds of IFFCO and KRIBHCO are being provided by the committees at reasonable prices. Paddy and wheat purchase centers are being operated for the last several years under the price support scheme by cooperative societies.
According to the CDO, work has been started by the committees as the common service centers, in which farmers will get the benefit of government schemes. At present, approval has been received to run four “Jan Aushadhi Kendra” through committees in the district, under which cooperative societies will make a very useful contribution in improving the health infrastructure in rural areas.
He said that in order to develop the world’s largest storage scheme, cooperative societies’ godowns are being registered with the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA), after which the farmers will get a solution to the problems faced by them in the maintenance of their produce. The co-operative societies are committed to ease the functioning and work smoothly by contracting with the Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) working in their respective areas.
The district magistrate, S Rajalingam and the CDO appealed to the farmers to become members of cooperative societies to take advantage of the fundamental changes taking place in the cooperative sector, so that they can get the benefit of the schemes run by the societies.
