Ordinance on amended Maharashtra co-op law 'in a week'

Cabinet may give its nod for the proposed amendments at its meeting slated for Jan 23

The Maharashtra government will request the state governor to issue an ordinance to put in place the amended Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan as well as the State Commissioner for Cooperation M Chaudhary have confirmed the issuance of the ordinance within a week.

The state cabinet is expected to give its approval for the proposed amendments to the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act at its meeting slated for Wednesday.

The amendments to the act were necessitated following the 97th amendment to the Constitution of India passed by Parliament in January last year.

As per that amendment, states are expected to bring into effect amended laws from February 15 this year.

In Maharashtra’s case, the issuance of an ordinance is the only option as the state legislature is in recess and will meet during the winter session beginning March 11.

There are in all 2.27 lakh cooperative societies in Maharashtra with an annual turn over of Rs 4 lakh crore. Besides, there are 31 district central cooperative banks of which 12 are loss-making while eight have a networth below Rs 1 lakh and recovery is below 54.24 per cent. There are also 526 urban cooperative banks in the state.

These bodies would be covered by the amended law.

But there is some opposition to the move. Maharashtra Cooperative Minister Harshvardhan Patil told Business Standard that till recently, the state government had the authority to hold cooperative elections, suspend the board of directors and appoint administrators after supercession of the elected board of directors. But as per the 97th amendment, the board of directors can be suspended only for 6 months and after that the suspended the board of directors will again assume charge.

“We are opposed to this provision. Also, the new act does not allow the state government to extend the duration of the administrator beyond 6 months. Earlier, we were having the power to extend this,” Patil clarified.

However, the government is going ahead with the implementation of the amended act.

“The government is prepared to bring into effect the provisions of the amended Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act from February 15. We have formulated by-laws. Besides, we have also prepared panels of auditors as the cooperative bodies will have an autonomy to appoint their own auditors,” said State Commissioner for Cooperation M Chaudhary.