Major cabinet overhaul of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given more power to his loyal lieutenant, Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Besides carrying out the cabinet rejig, the Modi-led BJP regime has created a new berth in the Central ministry - the Ministry of Cooperation. Modi has decided to hand over the responsibilities of the new ministry to his trusted associate Amit Shah. 

The Ministry of Cooperation was created with a view of strengthening India's cooperative-based development model and realize the vision of 'Sahakar se Samriddhi'. As an additional responsibility, the ministry would put Amit Shah in more spotlight in driving the nation in the ministry's vision Saharkar se Samriddhi - prosperity through cooperation. The Ministry will aid in strengthening co-operatives as a true people-based movement and ensuring that it reaches the grassroots. 

According to a press release from the Press Information Bureau, the Ministry of Cooperation will provide a separate administrative, legal, and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country. Amit Shah will be heading the ministry along with leading the Ministry of Home Affairs. 

In the release, the government has said that the newly-created Ministry will work towards improving the ease of doing business for co-operatives by streamlining processes to enable the development of Multi-State Cooperatives (MSCS). The government has said that the creation of the Ministry of Cooperation is a historic move. BJP National General Secretary BL Santhosh said that the new ministry is created with the motto of Sahakar Se Samruddhi. 

Taking to Twitter, Santhosh said, "A new ministry for Cooperatives is created with the motto of Sahakar Se Samruddhi. PM Modi first created Jal Shakti ministry and now Cooperatives. This will go a long way in strengthening the rural economy." The reports say that the Modi government has created the new ministry as per the budget announcement made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. 

While presenting the Union Budget, the Finance Minister has said that the BJP government was deeply committed to developing multi-state cooperatives and had pledged to provide support for the creation of the ministry. The Finance Minister said, "To further streamline the ease of doing business for cooperatives, I propose to set up a separate administrative structure for them."

On Wednesday, Narendra Modi had carried out cabinet expansion for the first time since forming the government for the second consecutive term in 2019. Ahead of the cabinet expansion, a dozen of Union Ministers had resigned from the cabinet and a total of 43 ministers had taken the oath at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday. The rejig has brought in new faces including former bureaucrats and elevated the second-line ministers to the cabinet berths.