By I C Naik
If the reports that the state government is determined to appoint special public prosecutors to deal with cases of defaults by Nagpur’s cooperative societies, it is good news for investors in several other parts of the state of Maharashtra whose hard earned money have quietly found way to the scam-stars.
Entire credit goes to Legislative council member MLC Neelam Gorhe of Shiv Sena who reportedly told the council in session that 11 cooperative societies with some 60,000 members have closed down since 2009 which owed about Rs 50 crores to its members most of which investors were senior citizens.
She was extremely unhappy that the crime branch had not probed the cases and no action had been taken against the guilty directors. If delinquent directors of this one cluster of cooperatives in one city are brought to books immediately, with active interest reportedly shown by Dadaji Bhuse, minister of state for cooperatives, perhaps it will renew hopes of hundreds of other cooperative members in the State to get some redress to their losses.
But it is not enough to say that “The cooperation department was taking action against guilty persons,“ as Mr Dadaji Bhuse reportedly told the media. Eleven urban co-op societies in Nagpur have been in trouble since 2009. “If there was any truth in this statement of actions taken against directors, why the details of actions reportedly taken against the directors of these societies under Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act 1960 by the State Government are not made public?” the people are at loss to understand.
This is public information and the Government is duty bound to make it public on its own not only when a MLA takes it up. At least to give those senior citizens who lost hopes should get some mental solace if action taken details are widely publicized by the authoritative sources.
