New Delhi, Jan 22: Himachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri on Wednesday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah here and urged him to allocate adequate funds to the state for schemes in the cooperative sector, especially for computerisation of primary agricultural credit societies and the Institute of Cooperative Management (ICM).
Key Points
1.
Sought Rs 10 crore grant for cooperative training institute
2.
Digitized 647 agricultural credit societies online
3.
Emphasized zero-tolerance policy against drugs and corruption
Agnihotri said the state has already provided land at Panjawar in Una and has provided a grant of Rs 5 crore for setting up the ICM. He sought Rs 10 crore as a grant-in-aid to set up the state-of-the-art cooperative training institute. The Home Minister assured that he was aware of the cooperative sector proposals and that funds would be released soon to ensure the timely completion of the project. He also assured that the Centre would accord all possible help to Himachal Pradesh regarding funding in cooperative schemes.
It was also discussed to provide funds for the opening of Mahila Cooperative Haats on a pilot basis in the state. Agnihotri mentioned that Himachal has made great strides in the computerisation project. As many as 870 primary agricultural credit societies were identified in the first phase, out of which 647 have been made online. An amount of approximately Rs 18.57 crore has been spent on this, while in the second phase, 919 societies have been identified and digitisation work is in progress.
The Union Minister stated that soon the Ministry of Cooperation would convene a meeting of central and state officers to address all the threadbound issues. Agnihotri apprised the Union Home Minister about the menace of the drug ‘chitta’ in the state and the action taken by the state government in this regard. He emphasized that the state has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and drug-related issues. He also noted that FIRs have been registered against drug kingpins, and a massive hunt is underway to apprehend those who remain at large.
