Cooperative bill is gathering dust in Parliament as if it is no body’s baby.The amendment bill with wide spread ramification was introduced in 2009 as 111th amendment and was sent to standing committee. Even the Standing Committee headed by Basudev Acharya sent it back on August 30, 2010. Still there is no forward movement leading a parliamentary panel to castigate government on the issue.
There have been instances where elections have been postponed indefinitely and nominated office bearers or administrators remaining in-charge of these institutions for a long time.
This reduces the accountability of the management of co-operative societies to their members. Inadequate professionalism in management in many of the co-operative institutions has led to poor services and low productivity. Co-operatives need to run on well established democratic principles and elections held on time and in a free and fair manner.
The bill aims at initiating fundamental reforms to revitalize these institutions in order to ensure their contribution in the economic development of the country and to serve the interests of members and public at large and also to ensure their autonomy, democratic functioning and professional management.
Vast majority of cooperative leaders,Indiancooperative.com talked to supported this bill overwhelmingly.
Now a Parliamentary panel has also pulled up the government for delay in the passage of the bill. “Mere schemes without a forward looking and cooperative friendly law are not going to help the cause of the cooperative movement in the country,” the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture said in its latest report.
The panel emphasised that the government must take action to get the “bill enacted without further delay and preferably in the ongoing session of the Parliament.”
It pointed out further that another bill related to cooperative societies is also pending with the Parliamentary Standing Committee because of the delay in the 2009 bill as some of its clauses may have a bearing on that legislation.
Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha in November, 2010, is under consideration of the Committee. It aims to strengthen the management of cooperative societies making it more responsible and accountable to members.
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