New Delhi/UNI: Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Saturday said the Central government has tried to bring equality in cooperative law under the constitutional framework without interfering with the rights of the states and the Centre.

Shah, in his address at 17th Indian Cooperative Congress held at Pragati Maidan in Delhi on Saturday, said that the amendment in the Multistate Cooperative Societies Act has been suggested by the Parliamentary Committee with consensus and this law is going to come in the coming session of parliament.

He said that earlier laws for PACS were different across the country and in order to bring uniformity, the Ministry of Cooperation has prepared bylaws for PACS and sent them to all States and Union Territories as advisories. 26 States and Union Territories have accepted these bylaws and 85 percent PACS of the country will work under the same law after September this year, the Ministry of Cooperation communiqué said.

The Union Minister said that through this, the government has made the PACS multidimensional which will make their expansion very easy.

He said, “We have also linked many activities with PACS, such as Common Service Centres, which will not only help in making PACS viable, but will also make them the center of rural services.”

Shah said, “We have also taken initiative in changing the retail outlets and recently the Prime Minister has also approved the world's biggest food grains storage scheme.”

He said that with the success of this scheme, the share of cooperatives in the storage system will increase to more than 35 per cent in the next 5 years, it said.

The Minister said, “We have created a database of cooperatives across the country and 90 per cent work has been completed, through which we will identify the vacuum and will do the expansion.”

He said that at present there are 85,000 PACS in the country. There will be PACS in every panchayat of the country in the next 3 years which means 3 lakh PACS will come into existence in the country and they will strengthen the cooperative sector, it added.