Indian Express: Mumbai: Thursday,
April 11, 2013.
The 97th
amendment to the Constitution is intended to rejuvenate co-operative societies
through more autonomy, professional management, prevention of interference and
transparency in functioning. It also makes floating of a cooperative society a
fundamental right of citizens.
A year after
the amendment, there is a debate in Maharashtra where the cooperative movement
is very strong, about applicability of RTI to make cooperatives more
transparent. The office of the Cooperative Commissioner is yet to receive any
clear guidelines on applicability of RTI to cooperative societies.
There is a
clamour from various sections of society for speedy inclusion of the sector
under RTI.
Roughly 1/6th
of the country’s economy is controlled by the cooperative sector, including
cooperative banks, credit societies and farmers’ cooperatives. For want of
proper record-keeping, the current status of the cooperative sectors is hazy,
with figures from Maharashtra showing 2,18,320 cooperative societies with a
total membership of 5.42 crore. Activists said cooperatives in the state have
always been a hotbed of political control and politicking.
Making a
strong case for bringing cooperative bodies under the RTI, activist Vijay
Kumbhar said as per the RTI Act, a body “constituted by or under the
Constitution” can be called a public authority. “With the amendment, the right
to form cooperatives has come under fundamental rights and thus it qualifies as
a body constituted under the Constitution and the RTI would be applicable to
them,” he argued.
Kumbhar said
cooperatives have the status of local self governments, listed under Part IX of
the Constitution. (Cooperatives are listed under Part IX B). “So, these
societies would come under RTI as all local self government bodies are within
the ambit of RTI,” he said.
Prahlad
Kachre, director of Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration’s
RTI cell, however, said inclusion of cooperative bodies under RTI should be
decided on merit. “Cooperative societies are not technically formed by the
government. They are registered by respective authorities and I do not know if
they qualify for RTI,” he said.
Trustee of
PCGT, on the other hand, said as cooperatives are registered under cooperative
laws, they qualify for inclusion under RTI. “It is not expected that the state
government would immediately come up with a circular asking cooperative
societies to appoint public information officers and first appellate
authorities to felicitate implementation of RTI,” he said.
Cooperative
commissioner Madhukar Chowdhury said RTI would be applicable, but only for
members of cooperatives. “We have not received any directions from the
government about applicability of RTI to cooperatives for the general public
till date,” he said.
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