Amidst sloganeering by Opposition MPs on the Manipur issue in the House, the Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 aimed at amending the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002 has been passed in Lok Sabha with a voice vote Tuesday evening.
Soon after the passage of the historic bill, the Lok Sabha was adjourned by speaker Om Birla till Wednesday morning. Before introducing the Bill, Shah expounded at length on how the Modi govt has removed basic poverty and how an aspirational population is eager to raise their lifestyles and earning. Roughly 60 crore Indians who have only small capital can find a way out through co-operatives, stated Shah.
Coming to the Bill Amit Shah said, “The amendment Bill to the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002 will bring the Act in conformity with the 97th Constitutional Amendment and also to make reforms to strengthen democratic member control, protect members’ interest, improve governance and enhance transparency”.
“The office of Central Registrar is also being computerized to strengthen the monitoring of multi-State cooperative societies. The proposed amendments in the bill will bring transparency in the activities of cooperative societies”, he said.
Despite the din in the House, Shah was able to raise his voice and convey details of the Bill. He said fair elections in co-operative have been a major issue and the bill aims to establish an Authority to be known as the “Co-operative Election Authority” which shall consist of a Chairperson, a Vice-Chairperson and members not exceeding three to be appointed by the Central Government.
Besides, provision for reservation of seats one each for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women in the board of the cooperative society is being mooted in the Bill. A Committee on prevention of sexual harassment at work place is also in the bill, he added.
Shah further added that in the case of multi-State co-operative banks, multi-State credit societies with deposits of above five hundred crore rupees and multi-State non-credit societies with turnover of above five hundred crore rupees, the auditor shall be appointed from a panel of auditors approved for audit of such societies by the Central Registrar. He also talked of employing RBI approved Auditors in co-op affairs.
In his speech in Lok Sabha, Shah also recounted the initiatives taken by the Union Ministry of Cooperation in achieving the ‘Sahakar Se Samriddhi’, vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The Ministry of cooperation has prepared the model bye-laws for PACS and all the states and UTs have adopted it except West Bengal and Kerala. Besides, in the two years of establishment of MoC, many new reforms have been done. PACS are being computerized and the National Database is being prepared”, he added.
Shah, however made no mention of NCUI Education Fund issue in his Lok Sabha speech, perhaps the only sore point between NCUI and the Ministry.
Attacking the congress government, Shah said no focus had been given on the cooperative movement in the last 75 years and no changes had been made to strengthen the cooperative movement. Our government has created a separate Ministry of Cooperation.
