MUMBAI: Sharing the dais with Ajit Pawar at an event in Pune on Sunday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Maharashtra Deputy CM is now at the “right place after a long time”, but “came very late.”
Ajit Pawar also praised the Shah, saying the Union minister is keen on the development of Maharashtra.
Shah’s statement comes more than a month after Ajit Pawar, the nephew of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar, joined the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Eknath Shinde along with some party MLAs on July 2.
Pawar was made deputy chief minister, while the other eight MLAs, including Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil, were sworn in as ministers. “This is my first public programme with Ajit Pawar. I want to tell him that he is now sitting in the right place after a long time. This was always the right place for you, but you came to sit here very late,” Shah said.
Shah, who is also the cooperation minister, was speaking after launching the digital portal of the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) office. CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis were also present at the event.
Shah said Maharashtra is the base of the cooperative sector as nearly half the country’s cooperative societies are based in Maharashtra.
“The Cooperative model of Maharashtra is taking the cooperative movement forward in the country. The cooperative movement has progressed and flourished only in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka, which is, the parts of the earlier Mumbai state. The complete digitization of the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) office has been carried out,” he said.
The Union minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of making a 5 trillion dollar economy and making India the third largest economy in the world.
“We should set a target for the contribution of the cooperative sector in achieving this goal. Under the vision of “Sahkar se Samridhi” of Modi, the Ministry of Cooperation has made a new beginning on Sunday by launching this digital portal,” he added.
Amit Shah said that 1555 multi-state cooperative societies of the country will be benefited from the portal launched today and 42 per cent of these 1555 societies are in Maharashtra only, this shows the strength of the cooperative movement in Maharashtra.
