The meeting came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi allocated the additional charge of the newly created Ministry of Cooperation to home minister Shah.
National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) chairman Dileep Sanghani, chairman BS Nakai and managing director US Awasthi of Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (Iffco), and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India chief Bijender Singh were among the cooperative sector honchos who met the minister.
“Under the leadership of Modi ji, we are determined to make cooperatives and all cooperative institutions more empowered,” Shah tweeted later.
Officials said even though Shah has not yet assumed the charge of the ministry, he has begun to meet people.
During Saturday’s meeting, the minister asked cooperatives like Iffco and Kribhco to work in the field of seed production using vacant land of 38,000 hectares as well as in organic farming, NCUI said in a news release. Shah assured them that the government was committed to strengthening the cooperative movement in the country, the benefits of which would go to grass-root level cooperatives, NCUI said.
Shah said the same benefits and concessions given to farmer producer organisations would be provided to primary agriculture cooperatives for strengthening them, it added. In the meeting, the minister desired that a conference with representatives of state-level cooperatives be organised by NCUI, Iffco and other cooperatives for discussing pertinent issues confronting the cooperative movement.