Union Home Affairs Minister and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that with the recently released Union Budget 2023-24, the Centre has made provisions and allocated adequete fund for the registration of over 2 lakh multi-dimensional Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS).
He said that the PACS have been created to ensure that there remains no 'panchayat' which would lack a dairy or a fishery cooperative society.
"To promote cooperation, PM Modi has introduced several schemes in the Union Budget. The previous tax of 26 per cent which was used to be levied on cooperation in the field of production, has now been lowered to 15 per cent. We have also constituted a Ministry of Cooperation to check which all panchayats lack milk and fisheries society," Shah said.
Amit Shah was addressing a function after laying the foundation stone of a nano urea plant of the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) in Jharkhand's Deoghar, and said, "After the formation of the Ministry of Cooperation, we set up a data bank for Cooperatives across the country to identify which Panchayats do not have PACs, dairy, or, a Fishery cooperative society. Hence, after five years, there will be no panchayat that does not have a PACS."
He said that land conversation has been one of the prime objectives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ever since he came to power to govern the country, and that such measures would help India become self-reliant.
He further advised the farmers to use natural manures instead of chemical fertilisers as they ruin the soil fertility.
"From today's programme, I only want to tell the farmers that excessive use of chemical urea will do nothing but damage your crops as well as the soil. However, if you use the natural urea, the IFFCO guarantees a rise in crop productivity," Shah said.
"The Nano urea has been created with the research intended to protect Mother Earth as when the chemical fertilisers seep into the earth, it kills earthworm which is known to make natural manure. By using the natural manure, you can prevent your soil from intoxication as well," added Shah.
Amit Shah embarked his visit to the state by offering prayers at the Baba Baidyanath temple with his wife. This is the second visit of Amit Shah within a time span of one month.
Amit Shah visited Jharkhand's capital Ranchi on January 6 and held the party's core group meeting and a public rally in Chaibasa on January 7.
The Minister's visit to Jharkhand is crucial in view of the 2024 parliamentary elections besides the 2024 Assembly elections.
( With inputs from ANI )
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