A Bill to amend the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, aimed at bringing in transparency in the sector, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Many Opposition MPs asked for the Bill to be referred to a Standing Committee for review arguing that it encroached on the rights of States.
The Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was introduced by Minister of State (MoS) for Cooperation B.L. Verma.
The Bill seeks to strengthen governance, reform the electoral process, improve the monitoring mechanism, and ensure ease of doing business in multi-State cooperative societies.
It also aims to improve the composition of boards and ensure financial discipline, besides enabling the raising of funds in the multi-State cooperative societies.
In order to make the governance of multi-State cooperative societies more democratic, transparent and accountable, the Bill has provisions for setting up of a Cooperative Election Authority, a Cooperative Information Officer and a Cooperative Ombudsman. To promote equity and facilitate inclusiveness, provisions relating to representation of women and Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe members on the boards of multi-State cooperative societies have been included.
Opposition MPs alleged the Bill’s provisions encroach on the rights of State governments.
Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said cooperative societies came under a State subject. “There is a clear indication that the Central government has been encroaching upon the territory of State governments [and] that is why protests are cropping up across the nation,” Mr. Chowdhury said.
Observing that cooperative federalism should have been followed before the preparation of this Bill, he said: “This (Bill) may lead to the concentration of power of the Central government, which may impact the autonomy and functioning of the multi-State cooperative societies and create potential for misuse.”
“Given the intricacies, given the ramifications and encroachment of State territory, this Bill should be referred to a Standing Committee,” he added.
On the same lines, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader N.K. Premachandran said the Bill went against the spirit of the definition of cooperative societies as enshrined in the Constitution.
The legislation sought to “take away” the rights of State governments and was against the federal structure of the country, he alleged.
Seeking the withdrawal of the Bill, Congress leader Manish Tewari said certain provisions of the proposed legislation struck at the heart of the autonomy of cooperative societies.
He claimed five clauses of the Bill were beyond the legislative competence of the House. Certain provisions put an additional burden on the cooperatives and infringed on the cardinal principle of autonomous functioning as provided in Article 43B of the Constitution, he said. (Article 43B says the government shall endeavour to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of cooperative societies.)
However, Minister Verma said that the Bill was within the capacity of the House and amendments had been introduced on several occasions earlier.
At present, India has more than 1,500 multi-State cooperative societies.
