Maharashtra has yet to bring its cooperative societies act in line with the 97th amendment of the constitution. In a bid to accomplish it, the state govt has tabled in the assembly a report by the joint select panel of the house that has examined various aspects of the cooperative societies bill 2013. The panel has recommended multiple changes in the bill.
The changes are: any active member shall be given an opportunity despite not attending any meeting and his service should be continued by the society, it would be unjust to keep away voting rights from members who had not yet completed three years, strength of the managing committee of a society would be 21 members and the term of the elected members would be five years, it would be mandatory for the co-operative societies to reserve two seats for women.
The new bill provides that the government shall provide financial assistance on a priority basis to a co-operative credit society if any loss is caused to it in the implementation of any schemes or programmes of the government.
According to the state co-operation minister Harshvardhan Patil, the co-operative societies would have to conduct elections within six months of the close of the financial year. It is one of the amendments proposed in the Maharashtra Cooperatives Act, 1960, the minister said.