New Delhi: The newly-set Union Cooperation Ministry is to be handled by Amit Shah, who already steers the Union Home Affairs portfolio, reports NDTV.
After the recent massive reshuffle among the union cabinet of ministers, the additional charge was handed over to Shah, while several old faces were replaced within it.
The new cooperation ministry was created with the objective of boosting cooperative movement in the country, which was announced on Tuesday. In a statement, the Cabinet Secretariat said that "sahkar se samridhi" (prosperity from cooperation) is its vision. The statement added that the new ministry would provide separate administrative, legal and policy frameworks for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country, helping cooperatives as people-based movements to the grassroots levels.
In the release, the government also informed that the newly-formed Ministry will work toward improving 'Ease of doing business' for co-operatives by streamlining processes to enable the development of Multi-State Co-operatives (MSCS).
The decision to form a cooperative ministry stems from the commitment Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman shown during this year's budget speech.
Amit Shah was a comrade throughout Narendra Modi's political journey of decades. He has handled Gujarat state's Home Affairs portfolio while Modi was the chief minister.
Now Shah will be aided by three ministers of state- Nityanand Rai, Ajay Kumar and Nisith Pramanik.