Computerisation of 63k PACS cleared

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the computerisation of 63,000 Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS), clearing an allocation of ₹2,516 crore in a move that will benefit 130 million farmers across India.

Union home minister, Amit Shah, who is also the minister for cooperation, thanked Modi for the decision and said the ‘Sahakar Se Samridhi’ was more than a slogan, acting as an agent of “positive change” for those associated with the cooperative sector. “In this digital age, the decision of computerization of PACS will increase their transparency, reliability and efficiency and will also facilitate the accounting of multipurpose PACS,” Shah said in a tweet.

Currently, a majority of PACS are not computerised and function manually, causing inefficiency and distrust, said an official statement.

Adding on to Shah’s comments, a government official said this update is “crucial for the development of the rural economy”. Union minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur said the move will ensure “speedy disposal” of loans, lower transition costs, faster audits, and the reduction in imbalances in payments and accounting with states.

Apart from providing financial inclusion, the software will also work to fulfil the requirement of fertilizers and seeds among other things, said the statement. The project includes developing a cloud-based common software with cyber security and data storage, providing hardware support to the PACS, digitalisation of existing paperbased records, maintenance support and training of officials.