Issuing a Circular Tuesday evening, the office of Central Registrar has allowed Annual General Meetings (AGM) in Multi-State Cooperative Banks through video conferencing or Other Audio-Visual Means.
Sadly, this relaxation is only for Multi State Co-op banks and not for multi-state co-op societies, according to the Circular released by Director Cooperation with the approval of the Central Registrar.
In a letter addressed to all Multi-State Cooperative Banks, all Registrars of Cooperative Societies and other stakeholders, the Central Registrar also imposes a set of Guidelines to be followed by a virtual AGM.
The guidelines include provisions like–An advance notice of not less than thirty days shall be given to each and every member of the concerned bank instead of fourteen days as stipulated in the MSCS Rules, 2002, the bank will serve an SMS/ email to all its members about online AGM and the notice shall be displayed digitally or on the notice board in all branches and offices along with the website of the Bank.
“To ensure that each and every member is informed of the agenda and given an opportunity to vote in the meeting, it shall be the responsibility of the concerned bank to contact all those members whose e-mail addresses are not registered with them over telephone or any other mode of communication for registration of their email addresses, before sending the 30 days’ notice for meeting to all its members. All efforts should be made in this direction”, reads the Communique.
Other conditions include a public notice by way of advertisement to be published in widely circulated newspapers. Also, all efforts should be made to ensure participation of members in the AGM through two-way communication.
The responsibility for hosting the virtual AGM and ensuring participation of all shall be with the Chairman of the concerned bank who shall submit an affidavit stating that all efforts have been made in this direction, stipulated the Circular while clarifying “This is an enabling facility and it shall be open to Multi-State Cooperative Banks only.”
