SEPARATE BODY FOR HOUSING SOCIETIES SOON

The Maharashtra gov ernment is mulling the creation of a separate authority to regu late cooperative housing socie ties.

The new authority would safeguard interests of housing groups from some unfavourable provisions of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act which also governs cooperative entities involved in commercia activities.

In the state assembly, cooper ative minister Subhash Desh mukh said the government had constituted a committee of offi cials, activists and experts for suggestions on amendments to the Act.

“We have realised that mem bers of cooperative housing soci eties cannot be treated on par with those of sugarcane facto ries, cooperative credit societies or commercial cooperative enti ties. If a member of a cooperative sugar factory loses his member ship, his loss is limited to only his equity. On the other hand, mem bers of cooperative societies per form charity work as office bear ers and the smallest of deviation in routine administration incurs a lot of hassels to them. Housing societies need to be treated dif ferently,” he said.

Deshmukh said the govern ment was considering to intro duce a separate chapter in the Act for housing societies.

He said the final decision wil be taken in next three months after the committee submits its report. An independent entity would resolve all issues of hous ing societies in a time-bound manner, he said.

Meanwhile, the Lower House cleared an amendment bill to section 88 of the Act. The tweak does away with the time limit o two-and-a-half years to complete an inquiry of any cooperative housing society by an officer appointed by the registrar. It came after Mumbai legislators Parag Alvani and Mangal Prab hat Lodha raised the issue of flat owners being harassed unneces sarily.