Study group to send Cooperative Act feedback to Centre

“After the bill was tabled,representatives of the co-operative sector got a chance to convey their suggestions,objections and recommendations to central ministers,” said BB Pujari,executive director of the Sangli Urban Co-ooperative Bank and chairman of the study group.

“Our focus will be ensuring that provisions in the Act will be helpful to farmers and banking will be used for development of the common man,” said Pujari.

“We would like to stress the need of including the amendments in Fundamental Rights,” Pujari said,adding that the amendments had been suggested in accordance with the Directive Principles,which are not enforceable.

An important aspect of this revision focuses on introducing legal and institutional reforms to enable cooperatives to function as autonomous member-centric and member-governed institutions. This autonomy will be given to cooperatives that do not have any monetary investment by the government. With respect to this and various other points mentioned in the bill,Pujari said they intend coming up with a questionnaire to be circulated among all cooperative societies and banks in the state.

B D Pawar,retired joint commissioner of the state cooperatives is the secretary of the study group.

The other members are,Bhagwan Gujar,retired secretary,Central Finance department,Dinesh Oulkar,Joint Commissioner,Maharashtra Cooperatives department,Appasheb Bhujbal,retired state sugar director,S T Bhide,retired state cooperative joint commissioner,P T Pandit,secretary,Yashwantrao Chavan Pratshthan,Pune,M A Deshmukh,chairman,Pune District Regional Cooperative Banks Association,Vidyadhar Anaskar,chairman,Vidya Sahakari Bank Limited and Bhanudas Badam,researcher in cooperative Act.