Government support to PACSs to open rice mills likely soon
Patna,(BiharTimes): All the active Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACSs) would be provided support to open rice mills and godowns in their respective areas once the state cooperative department gets a nod from chief minister Nitish Kumar.
The move will give protection to farmers and boost agro-industry in the state.
According to the proposal submitted to the chief minister an active PACS would be authorized to open a rice mill and godown.
Sources said the purpose is to ensure that farmers from whom paddy is procured by the PACS during the harvest season also get money from the PACS concerned for the milled rice. This would protect farmers from being cheated and the rice so milled from procured paddy would be stored in the godown of the PACS concerned.
The state government had in 2016-17 empowered PACS to procure paddy from farmers for which the cooperative department was made the nodal department.
There are 8,463 PACSs inBihar, but 1,600 of them have been blacklisted for indulging in irregularities.
