1340 primary cooperative societies in the state!
HYDERABAD: The number of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) will be increased to bring government assistance closer to the farmers. In addition to the newly formed mandals, the government has recently issued an order that each mandal should be taken as a unit and there should be exactly two pax. Accordingly, the State Cooperation Department is preparing proposals to set up 434 new PAXs. Elections will be held when these arrangements are completed. At present there are 906 cooperative societies in 584 mandals. There is not a single PAX in 81 mandals. There are 2 to 3 in some other mandals. Out of the existing 584, 272 mandals have only one PAX.
As per the new rules, in addition to all these, another PAX will be established. A total of 162 mandals will be formed in two each in 81 mandals. With this, 434 new primary cooperative societies will be formed. As soon as the new PACs are formed i.e. after the municipal elections, it is known that the elections will be held for all of them together. The responsibilities have already been assigned to the person in charge four times. After Telangana came, no elections were held for PAX. The current deadline will end on February 5. As many as 300 PAXs out of the existing 906 are facing financial difficulties. Some paks buy fertilizer from Markfed and sell it to farmers but they are not paying back to Markfed promptly.
The staff are also committing many irregularities. With this, the government aims to strengthen these and increase transparency. The government intends to take measures to enable farmers who are members of basic agricultural cooperatives to generate income by providing crop loans, efficient collection and other services. The government aims to provide all kinds of services to the farmers at the village level through packs. The aim is to package all types of work from seed sales to crop procurement. As a part of that, efforts are being made to have one pack within every 10 km to 15 km to be near to all the farmers.
