State mulls body for housing societies

THE NEED FOR A SEPARATE AUTHORITY

NAGPUR: The state government is considering setting up a separate authority to handle the affairs of Mumbai’s cooperative housing societies.

Replying to a debate on a bill to amend the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960, cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh said there was a need to separate cooperative housing societies from other cooperative bodies.

The government is mulling creating a separate authority for affairs such as elections, Deshmukhsaid,whileresponding to issues raised by legislators who pointed out holding elections and auditing accounts of the housing societies has become tedious.

Here lies the problem: all cooperative bodies, including cooperative housing societies, are governed by the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960. To ensure transparency in their functioning and to prevent malpractices, the state made it All cooperative bodies, including cooperative housing societies, are governed by the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960

mandatory for societies to audit theiraccountseveryyear, byfirms empanelled by it. It has also made it mandatory to hold elections of themanagementcommitteeevery threeyears. Whiletheseruleshelp check malpractices in cooperative sugar factories or banks, for housing societies, complying with so many rules is often difficult, datory for societies to audit their accounts every year

legislators said.

There are 22,000 housing societies in Mumbai and it is not possibleforresidentswhoaremembers totakeoutthetimetocomplywith the government’s rules. The state should consider diluting certain provisions, demanded Mumbai legislator Ashish Shelar.