The Central Government has disbursed five lakh crore rupees over the past five years to strengthen the cooperative sector across the country. Minister of State for Cooperatives Krishan Pal Gurjar informed this while replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha. He said, over a period of 51 years from 1963 to 2014, the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) had disbursed only 50 thousand crore rupees to strengthen the cooperative sector. Mr Pal said that farmers’ welfare is the top priority for the Modi government, and in line with this vision, for the first time, the government has launched a scheme to strengthen cooperative sugar mills with a fund of ten thousand crore rupees.