Punjab Minister for Cooperatives, Muhammad Basharat Raja has said that cooperatives in the province will be shifted to agriculture and livestock sectors as the focus of cooperatives in other countries is on agriculture and livestock. The provincial minister said that under the vision of the Prime Minister, 21 Farm Service Centers were set up in Punjab to provide agricultural machinery and equipment to the farmers. However, he noted, cooperatives in Pakistan are considered to be limited to housing sector only.
This was stated by him while presiding over a meeting on restructuring of Punjab Cooperative Department. Secretary Cooperative Punjab gave a briefing on the ongoing reform programs.
Basharat Raja expressed his satisfaction over the fact that last year, on the direction of Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, the Cooperative Department had disbursed agri-loans of worth Rs. 1536 million to 26,897 farmers of the province. “Out of the total paid Rs. 1517 million was successfully recovered,” he said.
The provincial minister said that under the vision of the Prime Minister, 21 Farm Service Centers were set up in Punjab to provide agricultural machinery and equipment to the farmers. “To improve the service delivery of the department, the present Punjab Government has made 24 amendments in the Cooperatives Act”, he noted.
He said that in a short span of time, 36 properties worth Rs 57 billion owned by the Cooperative Department were retrieved.
