Policy paralysis hits Central Registrar’s office

A policy paralysis is easily seen with regard to registration of multi state co-operative societies in the office of Central Registrar in the Union Agricultural Ministry.

It came to light in September when out of 200 applicants only one had the tag of multi state cooperative. There is more rejection than acceptance, said several applicants when contacted.

The figure is at variance with the focus of the Modi govt which has been pushing hard to improve the “ease of doing business.” It is still more perturbing as it is happening not far away but in one of his ministries where bureaucrats whimsically decide about who will get the licence.

Central Registrar Ashish Bhutani a middle level bureaucrat has hardly the time to respond to media queries on the issue. While a company is registered in no time in Modi’s regime, a multi state Co-op takes ages , complained many.

And the paradox is all the more stark as one’s fundamental right of forming cooperative has become a joke, felt cooperators.

Sources say the paralysis springs from the fact that a number of multi state co-op societies have been faulted for being in the wrong in recent years. Illegal transactions made by Multi-state multi-purpose credit cooperative societies have pushed thousands of people into penury across the country, claim media reports.

Sources say these fly by night outfits appear on the scene promising unusually big returns on money invested and after cheating people either go bankrupt or just close down. But it does not mean that you would throw the bathtub with the baby, says a cooperator on condition of anonymity.

What the govt should do is to hold the entire board responsible in case of any fraud. They can also limit the maximum deposit of Rs 5000 to a credit and thrift society. Such simple benchmarks would go a long way in breaking free of the logjam, he added.

Multi-state multi-purpose cooperative societies, by definition, are bodies which are operational in more than one state. Among them are credit societies, banks, sugar and textile mills. However, while the banks come under the dual control of the central registrar and the Reserve Bank of India, credit societies are answerable only to the registrar.

Power to control registration of such bodies is vested in the central registrar who operates under the Union Agricultural Ministry. Bhutani finds choking the movement the best way to check fraud.

Earlier, there was report of CBI probe into the illegal activities of over 1,200 multi-state cooperative societies operating in Maharashtra. BJP parliamentarian Kirit Somaiya said over 1,200 such societies are running nearly 200 ponzi schemes in violation of the Securities and the Exchange Board of India (Sebi) rules.