MUMBAI: Around 35000 housing societies in Mumbai metropolitan region and around 15000 in the rest of Maharashtra which have fewer than 50 members, will now be allowed to have their managing committee elected, without needing to fill the mandated reserved category posts.
The State Housing Department has revised its earlier on January 3 circular wherein they had initially brought down the minimum number of committee members from 11 to 5, and had only kept one seat for candidates from the open category and the remaining four seats were kept for reserved (SC/ST, OBC, VJNT and woman) candidates.
Poll
Do you think Uddhav Thackeray will accept another CM face in Maharashtra?
NoYes
“Now as per the new circular five general category members and two women members will be enough to form a committee of seven. If not, a five member committee can be formed with three of the members forming the quorum to pass any resolution in the managing committee,” said cooperatives expert Ramesh Prabhu who also heads Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MahaSeWa), a federation of cooperative societies in the state.
The two seats have been reserved for women irrespective of caste/creed/religion and five seats for the members from the general category for all societies, across MMR and the state. “If no women contest, only 5 seats will be filled. A minimum of 3 members is required for meetings,” the circular issued on February 28 indicated.
“Small societies were struggling to have their managing committee appointed due to the non-availability of reserved category members and were handled by the administrator, and flat owners were at their mercy. The new circular will bring an end to such a practice,” said society federation members.
At present Maharashtra has 1.25 lakh registered housing societies of which Mumbai and MMR has around 65 per cent to 70 per cent of the societies registered (fewer than 250 and more than 250 members). Older societies with less than 50 members struggled to form a full managing committee leading to appointment of an external administration who would often misuse their power making decisions without fairness, transparency and without taking members into confidence leaving no say for the residents in important matters such as repair, maintenance and redevelopment.
Prabhu said “As per the MCS Act 1960, even with five members instead of mandatory 11 members, a cooperative housing society can be registered. In a cooperative housing society, it is difficult to get candidates under the reserved category, even if such candidates are available, they may or may not contest the election, and thereby the post would remain vacant and there was no provision under the law to fill such reserved vacancy, with other general category members. As per the act, minimum 2/3rd members need to be elected to constitute the committee and as these post remains vacant, in a smaller society with less than 50 members, the Cooperative Societies Registrar is compelled to appoint an Administrator, who would man the society for rest of the period, thereby derailing the very foundation of cooperative moment, as the existing members had no say in the decisions of the administrator and most of the time such decision were arbitrary.”
Prabhu said it should also apply to larger societies too, up to 250 members. Reserved category members could still join as additional members if they wish to contest elections, he added.
aniltikotekar4sme.com 