Maharashtra cooperative dept cuts poll expenditure for housing societies

Maharashtra cooperative dept issued a notification finalising charges for polls of smaller cooperative housing societies while conducting the process

PUNE:The Maharashtra cooperative department of the newly formed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena alliance government led by Eknath Shinde, on Wednesday, issued a notification finalising charges for elections of smaller co-operative housing societies, preventing any exploitation by government officers while conducting the process.

Maharashtra cooperative dept issued a notification finalising charges for elections of smaller cooperative housing societies while conducting the process. ((PIC FOR REPRESENTATION))

These charges have been finalised for housing societies with less than 250 members, bringing down the financial burden on cooperative housing societies. Societies can appoint a polling officer from a panel of 340 government-approved officials whose rates have been fixed by the state.

As per the notification, housing societies with members less than 100 will have to incur ₹7,000, including ₹3,500 for government officers for internal elections or ₹3,500 in case the members are elected unopposed.

For societies with members between 101 and 250, total expenses for polls will be up to ₹8,500 including ₹4,500 for a government officer and in case of an unopposed election, the expenses will be ₹4,500.

Earlier, the cooperative department had made it mandatory for smaller societies to conduct an election by appointing returning officers without prescribing any charges. A series of complaints were registered by societies about exorbitant rates charged by these government empanelled officers.

Taking cognisance of complaints, the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government during the budget presented in April this year had announced doing away of government empanelled government officers for overseeing elections.

However, the Pune District Co-operative Housing Federation has termed the decision to be impractical and cumbersome.

Suhas Patwardhan, chairman of the federation, said, “The directive is impractical and will burden the returning officer who will have to visit the society at least ten to fifteen times for the election process.”

BJP legislator Ashish Shelar had been raising the issue before the government last year and claimed that the cost of such elections would not be an additional burden on housing societies, especially small residential housing societies. “The decision will benefit about 50,000 co-operative housing societies in the Mumbai metropolitan region and had to incur huge expenses for election expenses and will benefit them subsequently following its swift implementation, he tweeted.

Daljeet Goraya, secretary of Ganga Kingston Society, said, “Though the decision is being touted as far-reaching, on the ground, there are serious and practical difficulties as it would incur more expenditure for the polls. The feedback was given to the government much in advance but the citizen demand has not been taken into consideration. We want the decision to be reviewed at the earliest.”