Times of India | 1 week ago | 21-11-2022 | 07:40 am
Panaji: For Goa to become self reliant, the cooperative sector has a huge role to play, said chief minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday. Sawant urged cooperative societies to work towards skill upgradation and using the Government eMarketplace (GeM) portal to sell Goan products across the country. Sawant, who was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the state-level cooperative week, urged stakeholders from Goa’s cooperative sector to proactively work to implement the Centre’s schemes.“If Goa has to become swayampurna, then it can happen only through the cooperative sector. The cooperative sector staff has a great responsibility. This is one sector that can make the most impact,” Sawant said. “The Center and the state have so many schemes with so much funding and all we need to do is implement it. The government is with the sector.” Minister for cooperative societies Subhash Shirodkar concurred with Sawant and urged cooperative societies in Goa to think beyond the traditional sectors. “If a person has to be come atmanirbhar, it can happen only through cooperative sector, agriculture, animal husbandry and water resources. Today there are no cooperative societies that have not ventured into many sectors for example exports, tourism, fisheries, farmers societies,” Shirodkar said. Sawant asked the various cooperative societies to registered themselves on the GeM portal. “Goan products should be put up on the portal and should be available all India. From food products to handicrafts and cloths, everything can be put on the GeM portal. The market is now accessible from your home. It is the responsibility of the cooperative societies to make sure that the product from their sector is available on the GeM portal,” he said.The chief minister said that cooperative societies have only focused on disbursing money and recovering money with no efforts being taken to see the entrepreneurship and business grow. “We need to upskill the people in the cooperative sector through apprenticeship. The Centre will pay a stipend and the state will also provide a stipend so that in the next one year there will be 10,000 to 12,000 skilled manpower in the state,” Sawant said.