Share Purchase Grant for SC/ST Members of Cooperative Societies

What is the Share Purchase Grant for SC/ST members?

Share Purchase Grant for SC/ST Members is a scheme of the Cooperation Department (Sahakarita Vibhag), Government of Chhattisgarh. According to the department's scheme page at coop.cg.gov.in, the objective is to promote membership and ensure credit access and interest subsidy for SC/ST and weaker-section farmers and labourers in PACS and Tribal Service Societies.

The department publishes three precise parameters:

• Target: small and marginal farmers of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories in the society's area of operation.
• Assistance: Rs 500 per member, directly deposited into the share capital account.
• Limit: a maximum of Rs 50,000 per society per financial year, which works out to up to 100 members per society in a year.

The grant is deliberately small, because it is not income support. Share Purchase Grant for SC/ST Members buys the entry ticket. A cooperative society lends only to its members, and membership requires subscribing to at least one share. For a landless labourer or a marginal farmer in a Bastar or Sarguja village, that subscription is a real barrier. The State Government pays it on their behalf.

Why membership matters in Chhattisgarh's cooperative system

Chhattisgarh routes most of its farm support through cooperatives. The Cooperation Department states that farmers are given interest-free short-term agricultural loans of up to Rs 5,00,000 through cooperative societies and banks, with up to Rs 3,00,000 interest-free for fisheries and horticulture, up to Rs 2,00,000 for lac producers, and cattle-rearing loans at 1 per cent up to Rs 2,00,000 and 3 per cent from Rs 2,00,000 to Rs 3,00,000.

The department also confirms that Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Societies play an important role in procuring paddy at the support price, and that societies distribute fertiliser, seeds and pesticides and in many villages run the Public Distribution System outlet.

None of that is available to a non-member. A household outside the society is outside the interest-free credit line, outside the input supply chain and outside the paddy procurement register. That is the gap this Rs 500 grant is meant to close for SC and ST families.

The state has 2,058 PACS and LAMPS. LAMPS: Large Area Multipurpose Societies, called Tribal Service Cooperative Societies in the department's own scheme list; operate in the predominantly Scheduled Tribe areas and are explicitly named as covered by this grant.

Who is eligible, and who is not eligible?

You can be covered if:

• You belong to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe notified in Chhattisgarh and hold a valid caste certificate.
• You are a small or marginal farmer, or a weaker-section labourer, in the terms used by the Cooperation Department.
• You live within the area of operation of the Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Society or Tribal Service Cooperative Society concerned.
• You are not already a shareholding member of that society.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• You do not belong to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. The scheme is category-specific; general, OBC and other applicants are not covered by this particular grant, though they may join a society by paying the share amount themselves.
• You live outside the society's notified area of operation. A society cannot admit you at all in that case.
• You are already an enrolled member holding shares in that society, since the grant funds the initial share subscription.
• You want the Rs 500 as cash. The amount is credited to the share capital account and cannot be drawn as a payment.
• The society has already exhausted its Rs 50,000 ceiling for the financial year. Your case then carries over to the next year's list.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Share Purchase Grant

The scheme has no online portal. Apply through the society.

1. Go to your village Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Society or Tribal Service Cooperative Society and ask the Secretary for the membership admission form, saying that you are applying under the SC/ST share purchase grant.
2. Submit the form with your caste certificate, Aadhaar card, land record and residence proof. Keep a photocopy of everything you hand over.
3. The society board considers the admission at its meeting and adds your name to the list of eligible SC/ST members drawn up for the scheme.
4. The society sends the consolidated list to the District Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies, who sanctions the grant within the society's Rs 50,000 annual ceiling.
5. The Rs 500 is credited to your share capital account and your name is entered in the society's member register. Ask for your share certificate and membership number.
6. Collect your Kisan Kitab or society passbook, which is what you will need for a crop loan, for fertiliser and seed purchase, and for paddy sale registration.

How to check whether the grant has been credited

1. Ask the Secretary of the society to show the entry in the share capital ledger against your membership number.
2. If the society has gone live under the state's PACS computerisation project, all selected PACS in Chhattisgarh reached Go-Live by 31 December 2024 to ask for a system-generated statement showing the share balance.
3. If there is no entry, check with the District Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies whether the society's list was sanctioned for the year.

Common reasons a case is not sanctioned

• Caste certificate not attached, expired or in a different spelling from the Aadhaar record. This is the single most common reason.
• Applicant lives outside the society's area of operation. Apply to the society that actually covers your village.
• The society's Rs 50,000 annual ceiling is already used up. Ask to be placed on the next financial year's list in writing.
• The society has no functioning board and no administrator has been appointed, so no admission resolution can be passed. Raise this with the District Deputy Registrar.
• Duplicate membership — the person is already a member of the same society.

Where to raise a grievance

• Secretary and Board of the cooperative society: first stop.
• Block Cooperative Inspector, then the District Deputy Registrar or Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies.
• Office of the Commissioner, Cooperation and Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Raipur to 0771-2511920; Additional Commissioner 0771-2511923.
• The Cooperation Department itself hears disputes between members, office bearers and societies as a civil court under the Chhattisgarh Cooperative Societies Act, 1960, and passes orders at both trial and appellate level.

No fee is payable by an SC or ST applicant for this grant. If anyone asks for money to "arrange" the Rs 500 share, report it to the District Deputy Registrar.

Related Chhattisgarh cooperative support for weaker sections

The Cooperation Department runs a separate Managerial Grant to Tribal Service Cooperative Societies, under which Primitive Tribe Agricultural Credit Cooperative Societies that made a loss of more than Rs 10,000 in the previous year can get a grant of up to Rs 10,000, with a society that receives it barred from further assistance for the next three years. Read alongside the share purchase grant, the two measures work at opposite ends of the same problem; one keeps the society solvent, the other brings the poorest households into it.