Co-op societies likely to come under RTI

DNA: Mumbai: Monday, April 01, 2013.

There is an increasing consensus among RTI activists that cooperative societies that until now have been considered to be outside the RTI ambit will well be within its purview.

The opinion is due to the 97th constitutional amendment passed in January 2012, which came into effect recently, and due to which the state passed its own ordinance in February 2013. The amendment states that ‘cooperative societies’ shall be added to Article 19 of the Constitution.

“With this addition, cooperative societies are established as fundamental rights and they will be self-governed. In fact, the state’s ordinance has also stated that they will have their own officer and elections will be conducted by a body,” said Vijay Kumbhar, an RTI activist based in Pune.

Section 2h of the RTI Act states that ‘public authority’ means any authority or body established or constituted under the Constitution. “As per 2h, societies should now be covered under the Act,” said Narayan Varma, trustee, PCGT.

“My first reading is it comes under the Act now. But I am apprehensive how small societies will have officers,” said Shailesh Gandhi, former CIC.

“It may make the work of the societies tedious,” said Rajen Dharod, another activist.

However, some think that despite putting burden on societies, the work should be segregated at both the society and registrar levels. “The PIO should be from the society and the first appellate authority should be from the registrar’s office,” said Bhaskar Prabhu.