Minister of State for Cooperation Murlidhar Mohol said the Bill will ensure that adequately trained professionals will be available to the sector in the coming years. Photo: SansadTV via x/@MinOfCooperatn
The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (April 1, 2025) passed the Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill to establish the first national university for cooperation, converting the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat (IRMA) into a Central University.
Replying to the debate on the Bill, Minister of State for Cooperation Murlidhar Mohol said the Bill will ensure that adequately trained professionals will be available to the sector in the coming years. The Minister said the university can train eight lakh professionals annually. The Bill is named after Tribhuvan Das Patel, one of the founders of the Gujarat State Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which is known as Amul. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on March 26.
Mr. Mohol said the Congress ignored the cooperative sector for many years, though more than 30 crore people are associated with the sector. “The department’s budget was ₹122 crore when it was part of the Agriculture Ministry. Now, the Ministry has a budget of ₹1,190 crore. This shows how important the cooperative sector is to the Narendra Modi Government,” Mr. Mohol said, adding that earlier a joint secretary was assigned to this department and now it is an independent ministry.
New initiatives
He said the Bill is part of several new initiatives by the Ministry. He said the by-laws for primary agriculture societies (PACs) have been changed, and PACs have now been made multi-purpose after Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah held discussions with chief ministers of various States. “32 states and union territories have adopted the by-laws,” he said.
Countering criticism that the Centre is meddling with cooperation, a State subject as per the Constitution, Mr. Mohol said the Union Government is trying to empower States and their cooperatives. “Our government is doing a lot to strengthen PACs,” he said and added that a National Cooperation Policy will soon be announced. “Our aim is to launch two lakh new PACs in the next five years. 14,000 of these have already been formed. Under the Congress, only one lakh cooperatives were formed. We will ensure that there will be three lakh PACs in the next five years,” he added.
During the debate, the Opposition questioned the Centre’s intentions. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said there is “conspiracy” to hand over cooperatives to industrialists. “Through this Bill, cooperatives are being corporatised. The Cooperative Ministry and the cooperative movement is being taken from workers and farmers and being given to industrialists,” Mr. Singh said.
Published – April 02, 2025 12:06 am IST
