NOW, SOCIETIES MUST SHARE FINANCIAL INFO WITH MEMBERS

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra cabinet has made it mandatory for office-bearers of cooperative housing societies to share financial details, if sought, with their members.

The cabinet said if the officebearers’ committee fails to provide information, it will be fined Rs25,000. It amended the cooperative housing society rules on Tuesday.

The cabinet also decided to allow members of the housing societies with fewer than 200 members to hold their own elections every five years. Until now, the societies had to request a government body, Maharashtra State Cooperative Election Authority (MSCEA), to conduct elections, making the procedure tedious and expensive.

The new rule will benefit most housing societies in Mumbai. Of more than 2 lakh cooperative societies in the state, 1 lakh are cooperative housing societies. Of them, 80,000 have fewer than 200 members. Mumbai has about 20,000 housing societies with fewer than 200 members.

State cooperation department officials said if members ask for all details except personal ones, the managing committee will have to compulsorily share them. “Until now, it was on the society’s discretion to give information,” said a cooperation department official. The cabinet also announced that buildings with a minimum of five members against the 10 members earlier can also form a housing society. For the new rules, it approved amendments to the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act (MCSA), 1960 and added section 152 (b) to the Act.