How Maharashtra state polls will affect 70,000 housing societies

The impending assembly elections have thrown a spanner in the functioning of the states cooperative housing societies CHS with the government barring them from holding elections till December 31The delay mdash necessitated by the upcoming model code of conduct mdash comes weeks after the government gave citizens some good news allowing CHS with fewer than 250 members to hold elections on their own Maharashtra has over 80000 registered CHS of which some 70000 societies have fewer than 250 membersMinister for Cooperation Subhash Sureshchandra Deshmukh said the draft rules would be sent to the Law and Judiciary Department for approval before inviting public opinion after which the final rules will be framedWe expect the process to take three months he said So we came out with the notification First we need to amend the existing Act Then we have to introduce the new Housing chapter Section 154 b which will have 31 clauses one of which will enable societies to have their own electionsAn official said the rules were being changed because it had become increasingly difficult for CHS office bearers to seek appointments from the cooperative election commission before holding polls A sevenmember committee headed by Sandeep Deshmukh Addl Registrar Cooperative Societies current with SRA prepared the draft rules Elections will be mandatory as per new norms after December 31Deshmukh added We have made a few more amendments like 1 having members from the reserved category 2 the need to have a minimum quorum to hold polls which has been brought down from the existing norms 3 the concept of a cooperative housing association to facilitate formation of associations of less than five societies for conveyance or deemed conveyance matters 4 the introduction of joint and provisional members and 5 a penalty of R25000 on the management committee if they dont allow inspection of documents under Section 32 of the MCS ActAsked what about societies that may have already formed new committees and held AGMs Satish Soni Commissioner for Cooperation and Registrar Cooperative Societies CC and RCS said We have not asked societies not to hold AGMs They can continue with their AGMs Only if elections are due they cannot be held till yearend Old committees have powers to handle society affairs Disputes arising from overruling of the notification can be challenged under Section 91 of the MCS ActProperty lawyer Vinod Sampat said it was impossible for cooperative officials to supervise all elections On the sevenmember committee drafting new clauses to hold elections he caustically asked Is the government saying societies do not know the rules to hold elections something they have been doing since the 1960sHe said in many societies officebearers selection is biased especially when huge funds are involvedNowadays the cooperative movement survives because there is no alternative he said Builders are smart enough to manage shopping malls without forming cooperative societies and apartment ownership premises governed under the Maharastra Apartment Ownership Act MAOA are supposed to be managed by Cooperative Departments as Deputy Registrar is the competent authority However till date authorities have not taken a single step despite the MAOA being in existence since 1970Sampat also criticised the government for not clarifying doubts that CHS may have The state spends lakhs on advertisements but when it comes to educating CHS members unfortunately no advertisement is put out resulting in a waste of time for members thanks to the negligence of the cooperative department he saidCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates