After 75 years of independence, the country is getting its first cooperative university

Amit Shah today replied to the discussion on the Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill 2025 in Lok Sabha in the Parliament. Subsequently the bill was passed by the lower house.

Replying to the discussion, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that cooperation sector touches lives of all families in the country in some way or the other. He said that every village has some or the other cooperative unit engaged in agricultural development, rural development or generating employment thereby contributing to the development of the country. Shri Shah said that after 75 years of independence, today the country is getting its first cooperative university. He said that this bill will strengthen the rural economy, develop the ecosystem of self-employment and small entrepreneurship, increase social inclusion and will increase opportunities to set new standards in innovation and research. He said that in a way, the whole country will get a new cooperative leadership inspired by the spirit of cooperation and equipped with modern education.

Shri Amit Shah said that it was decided to name this cooperative university as Tribhuvan Sahkari University. He said that Tribhuvan Das Patel was among many others who laid the foundation of co-operatives in India under the guidance of Sardar Patel. He said that it is the cooperative institution Gujarat State Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which is popularly known as Amul. He said that the journey of Amul which began in 1946 with 250 litres of milk in a town of Gujarat, has today become India's largest dairy brand and stands before the world. Shri Shah said that in 2003, the turnover of Amul was Rs 2882 crore which has crossed Rs 60 thousand crore today. He said that the opposition is protesting because there is no university in the name of a particular family; they do not know that Tribhuvan Das Patel was also their leader.

Union Minister of Cooperation said that in 2014, a new government under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi came to power and the 10-year period of the Modi government will be written in golden letters for the welfare of the poor of the country. He said that in these 10 years, houses were built for the poor, toilets were built, drinking water was provided to the poor, free ration of 5 kg free food grains for the poor, gas connections for the poor, free medical treatment up to Rs 5 lakh, and electricity for all in the country has been accomplished. He said that in the past 10 years, 25 crore people of the country have been brought above poverty line. Shri Shah said that what was essential for living for the poor people of the country, who used to spend their lifetime for it, were provided to them by Prime Minister Modi in the past 10 years. He said that now the question before these crores of people is how can they grow further, how to start a business and contribute to the development of the country with no capital. Shri Shah said that the only way to connect a person without capital with entrepreneurship is Cooperation. He said through Cooperation crores of people with small capital are coming together to start their businesses and are living with dignity by generating self-employment.

Shri Amit Shah said that in a country like India with a population of over 130 crore, employment is also a big indicator of the health of the country's economy, along with GDP. He said that cooperatives are the only sector that connects 130 crore people with the country's development through self-employment and also protects their dignity. Shri Shah said that Prime Minister Modi formed the Ministry of Cooperatives three and a half years ago, fulfilling the decades-long demand of farmers, villagers, and cooperative leaders. He said that after the formation of the Ministry of Cooperatives, a new chapter of development of cooperatives has started.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that today there are 8 lakh cooperative societies in India and 30 crore people are their members. In a way, every fifth person in the country is associated with cooperatives, but no effort was made for its development in the past 75 years. Shri Shah said that cooperatives were running unevenly across the country and anomalies had started to appear in the cooperative movement. He said that it was the reason for Modi ji to established the Cooperative Ministry. Since its establishment, the Ministry of Cooperatives has done a lot of work in the last three and a half years. He said that to develop cooperatives, a national cooperative database was prepared together with all the states and today information about cooperatives of every state, district and village is available in this database.

Shri Amit Shah said that 2 lakh new Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) will be formed in the country and there will not be a single Panchayat in the country where there will not be a PACS. He said that the Modi government decided to change the by-laws of PACS and the entire country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Northeast to Dwarka accepted the model by-laws issued by the Centre. This enabled linking of more than 25 economic activities with PACS, improvements in the election process and development of a common accounting software, available in all languages ​so that it can cater to all. He said that 43 thousand PACS Common Service Centres (CSCs) have been established in the country where benefits and facilities of more than 300 schemes of the Central and State Government are available. Shri Shah said that today 36 thousand PACS are working as PM Samridhi Kendras in the country, 4 thousand PACS have been established as Jan Aushadhi Kendras and 400 PACS are also running petrol pumps.