Housing societies in Bihar face quota hurdle to run their affairs, House debates

Under the Bihar Co-operative Society Act,1935, and Bihar Self Supporting Co-operative Society Act, 1996, all primary and central societies are registered following reservations which entail that in board of the society, there would be two directors from scheduled castes and tribes, two from extremely backward classes and two from other backward classes.

A rare rule in Bihar, which provides for reservations in managing committees of apartment owners’ associations at the time of their registration, came up for discussion in the state assembly on Saturday, prompting Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha to ask the minister concerned to make the registration process easier.

An apartment complex in Patna. (HT)

“The co-operative department will coordinate with all departments concerned to make the process of registration of apartment owners’ associations simpler. The process should be practicable. I will look into the matter myself also,” Sinha said while issuing directions to law minister Pramod Kumar, who was replying on behalf of the government to a call attention motion brought by RJD’s Sameer Kumar Mahaseth.

The RJD member had drawn the attention of the House to difficulties being faced by apartment dwellers in registering their associations, which look after upkeep of housing societies though management committees elected by the flat owners.

“The reservation norm is proving to be a big obstacle in registration of apartment owners’ associations for upkeep of thousands of flats in Patna,” Seth said.

The RJD member also said that apartment owners’ associations are even unable to open bank accounts for collection of maintenance charges from flat owners.

The law minister, however, said the registration of apartment owners’ associations was being done under Societies Registration Act, where reservation norm has to be followed. “ We cannot do away with the reservation norm,” he said.

Raising a supplementary, the RJD member countered the minister, saying there was no logic in implementing reservation norm for registering apartment owners’ associations .“When flats are sold, is there any reservation norm followed? Then why is reservation norm being mandated for registering the associations? Is the government giving jobs or what?,” Seth asked.

At this point, the Speaker conceded that reservation norm in applying for registration of apartment owners’ associations appeared to be causing hurdles in making the process simpler and directed the minister to co-ordinate and find a solution.

Under the Bihar Co-operative Society Act,1935, and Bihar Self Supporting Co-operative Society Act, 1996, all primary and central societies are registered following reservations which entail that in board of the society, there would be two directors from scheduled castes and tribes, two from extremely backward classes and two from other backward classes.

Officials in the co-operative department said the reservation policy has to be implemented in the managing committees of the apartment owners’ associations, when it applies for registration under either Bihar Co-operative Society Act, 1935 or Bihar Self Supporting Co-operative Society Act, 1996.

For example, if there is an apartment complex having 20 flats, a managing committee has to be formed of at least 13 members comprising one chairman, one manager and 11 directors or members.

There is also a provision of 50% reservation for women horizontally i.e. among the directors from reserved classes, one has to be a woman.

Advanced facility in IGIC to be operational from April: Minister

The new wing of Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology, Patna, equipped with modern machines including cath lab and cardiac CT scan will be operational from April this year, said health minister Mangal Pandey during a short notice question raised by RJD’s Lalit Kumar Yadav.

The minister also informed the House that new 10-storey building inside the IGIC campus had been handed over to BMSICL (Bihar Medical Service Corporation Limited) and work on installation of modern equipment were underway.

The House witnessed noisy scenes, with both ruling and opposition members vociferously raising the issue of delay in payment of financial compensation to families of Covid patients who died due to the disease during the pandemic. Several legislators, including Arun Shankar Prasad of BJP, said the compensation claim applications made by kin of deceased were pending for months and not processed.

The deputy chief minister and disaster management department minister Renu Devi informed the House that her department makes the payments on priority after receiving applications processed by state health society. “But I will look into the matter,” she said.