Model bylaws ready to make PACS multi-purpose: Union minister Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the Centre is planning to make the primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) multipurpose.

While addressing the annual general meeting of seven cooperative bodies of Amreli district, Shah said the requisite bylaws for the purpose are already ready. Shah maintained that the PACS will be providing facilities such as marketing, godowns, producing biogas and collecting power bills.

Before the end of the month, the model bylaws will be sent to the cooperative bodies, he said. He also said the Union government plans to raise the number of existing 65,000 PACS across the country to three lakhs over the next five years starting this December. According to Shah, once this target is achieved every panchayat will have a PACS.


The government is also planning for a cooperative policy to facilitate formation of cooperative societies in sectors such as health, insurance, transportation and tourism, he said.

Shah said Amul and five other cooperative societies have been brought together to form a multistate cooperative society that will set up laboratories across states to certify organic products as Amul Organic Products and the profit will be directly transferred to the farmers.

Shah also heaped praises on Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala. Shah said that it was Rupala in his capacity of MoS Agriculture who had first talked about a separate ministry of cooperation. It may be mentioned here that Amreli used to be the assembly constituency of Rupala.

Shah later paid his obeisance to Somnath temple and launched the website for the temple. He also inaugurated a16 statue of Hanuman and a shopping complex of 262 shops named “Maruti Haat” in the coastal town.