Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday told Parliament that two seats have been reserved for women and one for Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes on boards of multi-state cooperative societies, in response to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's questions on increasing SC/ST participation in the cooperative sector.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Shah said the government has incorporated similar provisions in model bye-laws for Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) distributed to all states. These measures aim to make PACS membership more inclusive by ensuring adequate representation for women and SC/ST communities.
Gandhi had sought details on government initiatives to increase SC and ST participation in forming cooperative societies. He also asked whether the government had granted exemptions to mandatory allocation under the SC/ST Sub-Plan for major schemes implemented by the Cooperation Ministry, particularly financial assistance for setting up ethanol plants.
Shah outlined that the ministry is implementing multiple schemes, including computerisation of PACS, grant-in-aid to the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) for strengthening cooperative sugar mills, and IT interventions for cooperatives.
"These schemes are benefiting farmer members of the cooperative societies, which include SC/ST farmers as well," Shah stated, explaining that exemptions were granted given the nature of scheme implementations through cooperative societies.
Under the grant-in-aid scheme for strengthening cooperative sugar mills, the government provided a one-time grant of Rs 1,000 crore to NCDC in two instalments of Rs 500 crore each during FY 2022-23 and FY 2024-25.
This funding enabled NCDC to leverage additional market borrowings and provide financial assistance worth Rs 10,000 crore to cooperative sugar mills. The assistance covers setting up ethanol plants, cogeneration plants, meeting working capital requirements, or a combination of these purposes.
The scheme has resulted in NCDC sanctioning 109 loans, benefiting 56 cooperative sugar mills with total financial assistance of Rs 10,005 crore.
