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Balasaheb Patil: Coop hsg societies with less than 250 members will be allowed to hold elections
PUNE Maharashtra’s cooperation minister Balasaheb Patil said on Monday that cooperative housing societies with below 250 members will be allowed to hold elections
PUNE Maharashtra’s cooperation minister Balasaheb Patil said on Monday that cooperative housing societies with below 250 members will be allowed to hold elections.
Given the surge in Covid cases, the Maharashtra government had postponed elections to cooperative bodies till August 31, 2021.
As the deadline approached and Covid-induced restrictions eased, housing societies are eagerly awaiting government directions.
In Pune district, there are 18,000 cooperative housing societies of which 4,000 are due for elections.
“Housing societies with members less than 250 would be allowed to hold the elections. The official decision would be declared after the scheduled cabinet meeting this week,” said Balasaheb Patil.
He also added that the final decision regarding the elections of other bigger cooperative societies is hanging because of the possibility of the third Covid wave. “The election process for bigger cooperative societies has begun, for example the work of preparing voter lists of four district cooperative banks whose financial condition is not good has started. As for the other societies, we are still contemplating what to do. Experts have warned about the third wave and so we have to be cautious,” said Patil.
In the Pune district, of 18,000 cooperative housing societies, 17,000 have below 250 members. The Federation of Housing Societies demanded permission to hold elections for all cooperative housing societies.
“We are demanding that all societies be allowed to hold elections. Preparations for all the other big elections have started. So housing societies should be given permission to hold the elections,” said Suhas Patwardhan, chairman of Pune District Cooperative Housing Societies Federation.
Earlier, speaking in Pune on Friday, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar had also hinted at allowing the elections to housing societies.
After the postponement of elections in April, the District Cooperative Housing Societies Federation started to train members of housing societies to be returning officers for the elections.
