The lethargic office of the Central Registrar has once again proved that it “acts” only when the time has elapsed. In a letter dated 15th January, the Central govt has extended the deadline of holding AGMs by multi state co-ops by 15th Feb.
Earlier, the same office of the Central Registrar had announced 31st December as the deadline. Any alert office would have announced the extension latest by 30th December but the babus took the call after 15 days of the lapse of the original date!
In a letter written to the multi state co-op societies on the auspicious day of Makar Sankanti, the office of the Central Registrar has given extension in the time period for holding Annual General Meetings (AGM) of multi-state co-op societies. This also includes multi state co-op banks.
The letter is addressed to All Multi-State Cooperative Societies (including banks), all Registrar of Cooperative Societies and all the Stakeholders with the Subject: Extension in time period for holding Annual General Meetings (AGM).
The letter reads “This authority has received various references/ requests by Multi-state cooperative societies including banks (hereinafter referred to as ‘societies for the sake of brevity) for not being able to conduct Annual General Meetings (AGM) on time. The issue arises on account of recent pandemic. COVID-19, due to which the AGMs and elections could not be conducted in the conventional way and the societies have sought guidance of this authority for giving them the extension on time period for conducting AGMs.
“Earlier, this office had issued circular dated 24.08.2020 (copy enclosed) on the same issue and this authority had permitted all the societies to conduct AGMs by 31.12.2020 However, due to imposition of restrictions on movement by the concerned State Government on account of outbreak of COVID-19, many of the societies have still not been able to conduct AGMs in conventional way within the said time period,”, said the letter.
“In view of the above, it has been decided that in continuation to our circular dated 24.08.2020, the time period on conducting the AGMs by the societies is extended till 15.02.2021. However, Societies/ Banks are advised in their own interest to conduct the AGMs at the earliest depending upon the circumstances in their region”, it concludes.
Interestingly, most of the multi state co-ops, braving odds, have held their AGMs before 31st December. They feared wrath of the govt for not following its dictates despite Covid compulsion. “This shows how co-ops are more sensitive to law compared to the govt’s lackadaisical approach”, commented co-operators.