Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah inaugurated a new building of the Kheda District Central Cooperative (KDCC) Bank Limited (Sardar Patel Sahkar Bhavan) on Sunday.

On the occasion, the Union minister addressed the 76th Annual General Meeting of the bank at Nadiad, Gujarat through video conferencing.

The new building of the bank has been constructed at a cost of Rs 18 crore 70 lakh. Many dignitaries, including the minister of cooperation of Gujarat and the chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) were present on this occasion.

Shah said Kheda is the same district from where Amul was started under the guidance of country’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

He said Amul set an example of achieving “Sahkar se Samriddhi” (Prosperity through cooperation) for the entire country and the world. Till some time ago, there were talks of closure of the Kheda District Cooperative Bank, but today this bank has constructed its own building of 36,000 square feet and has realized the dreams of implementing all rules of e-banking.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the people of the country have got the formula of “Sahkar se Samriddhi aur Samriddhi se Sampoornata”, he said.

The minister added that under this vision, PM Modi established the Ministry of Cooperation at the Centre for the first time after 75 years of independence. “This initiative will play an important role in giving the cooperative sector an added life of at least 100 years in the coming times.”

Speaking at the 76th Annual General Meeting of the bank, he said the bank introduced loan management, document management system and tablet banking for the first time in the cooperative banking system of Gujarat, which is a landmark achievement.

Highlighting his government’s initiatives for cooperatives, he said the Centre is running pilot projects under the new initiative “Cooperation Amongst Cooperatives” in Banaskantha and Panchmahal districts.

He appealed to the people associated with cooperative institutions to open their bank accounts in the District Cooperative Banks so that a strong economic structure could be built in the cooperative sector.

If the mantra of “Cooperation Amongst Cooperatives” is successful, India does not need to take help from anyone in the cooperative sector. There is no need to take even a single rupee from the Central or the State Government, he added.

“Entire cooperative movement can run strongly only with the money of cooperative institutions,” he added.