Bengaluru, Dec 30 (PTI) Union Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Friday said the government has initiated the process to come out with a co-operative policy for the country.

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He was addressing the 'Sahakar Beneficiaries Conference' here.

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"There is also a plan to set up a cooperative university in the country to fulfil the manpower needs. The work of creating a national database of all the cooperatives in the entire country is also going on, and a co-operative policy has also been initiated," Shah said.

He said a committee has been constituted under the Chairmanship of former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu to work regarding the policy.

"Also, we are going to expand the role of NCDC ( National Cooperative Development Corporation) along with NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) so that cooperative societies can get finance in a better way. Elections should be transparent so that a model act has also been prepared and sent to all the States," he added.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Union Minister Parlhad Joshi, state's cooperative Minister S T Somashekar among others were present at the event.

Karnataka is a State where cooperative movement has been going on for a long time in a great way, Shah said, it is said that the country's first cooperative society was set up in 1905 in a Kanaginahal village in Gadag district by Siddanagouda Sannaramana Gouda Patil.

He complimented Prime Minister Narendra Modi for setting up a separate cooperative ministry in the country, aimed at nurturing the sector.

Pointing out that there are about 30 lakh cooperatives in the world and out of it about 9 lakh are in the country, Shah said 91 per cent of population is linked to a cooperative in one way or another, with cooperatives covering 70 per cent of the country's farmers through PACS (Primary Agricultural Credit Society).

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)