Raipur, 08 September 2022
Chhattisgarh’s Cooperation Minister Dr. Premsai Singh Tekam has said in the meeting of cooperative ministers held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi today that the powers of multistate cooperative registrar should be given to the additional registrars of the states, so that the multistate credit co-operative societies can be used by the public. Action can be taken in case of embezzlement of amount. For this, concrete steps need to be taken.
Minister Dr. Tekam said that multistate cooperative societies are formed from the central registrar level, which work in all the states, after depositing the amount by luring more interest to the general public by many such committees in the last years. They close their business and go away and the beneficiary’s amount is not returned. Also that such societies behave like banks. States have no right to take action against such societies.
It is noteworthy that a meeting of cooperative ministers from across the country has been called on 8th and 9th September under the chairmanship of Union Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. In the meeting, Chhattisgarh’s Cooperative Minister Dr. Tekam informed that many innovative schemes are being run in Chhattisgarh through cooperative societies to raise the standard of living of the farmers.
Dr. Tekam informed that cooperative loans worth Rs 5261.43 crore of 13.47 lakh farmers have been waived in Chhattisgarh. Apart from this, interest free short term loans up to Rs 5 lakh are being given to farmers through cooperative societies, banks. Fish farming and lac rearing have been given the status of agriculture by the government. Along with this, loans are also being given at concessional rates for horticulture crops, cow rearing. To strengthen the newly formed committees, a plan was made for construction of godown-cum-office at a cost of Rs 185 crore, for which the government has decided to give 75 percent grant to the committees.
Dr. Tekam informed that Chhattisgarh is the first state in the country to purchase cow dung. In the state, 8408 cow dung is being purchased from cattle rearers at Rs. 2 per kg. He said that the Government of Chhattisgarh is committed to ensure the growing need for ethanol and to get the right price for the entire produce of the sugarcane growers of Chhattisgarh. The decision has been taken by the government to set up an ethanol plant on PPP mode, the first of its kind in the country in the field of cooperatives, in the state’s Bhoramdev Cooperative Sugar Producing Factory, Kawardha campus. An 80 kiloliter per day ethanol plant (molasses, sugarcane juice, sugar syrup based) is being set up by the contractor at an estimated cost of Rs.125 crore. The target of commercial production has been set in January 2023.
Dr. Tekam informed that under Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojna for sugarcane farmers of the state, 34292 farmers were paid Rs 74.24 crore in addition to FRP in sugarcane crushing season 2019-20 at the rate of Rs 93.75 per quintal. In this way, sugarcane farmers in the state got sugarcane price at the rate of Rs 355.00 per quintal in the cane crushing season 2019-20.
