Cooperative fraternity burst into jubilation on the news of passing of Constitution (111th) Bill, 2009 on Thursday by Lok Sabha. Apart from other things, the fact that forming cooperative has acquired status of Fundamental Rights gave shot in the arms of cooperative leaders.

“It is history in making” quipped Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, President of National Cooperative Union of India, the apex cooperative body in the country. We thank Sharad Pawarji and all 390 MPs who unanimously passed the bill, he added.

The Constitutional amendment bill aims at bringing uniformity in cooperative societies in terms of election , tenure and composition(one woman and one from SC/ST) of cooperative societies.

We welcome it. Country has realized the need for vibrant cooperative movement, was the massage from Shri Uday Shanker Awasthi, Managing Director of IFFCO which is a federation of more than 40 thousand cooperative societies across the nation.

Shri G N Saxena,Director of Cooperative Development at IFFCO was euphoric at  forming cooperatives being elevated to the rank of Fundamental Rights.

Eknath Thakur, another cooperative giant in the field of Urban Cooperative Banks and Chairman of the largest Urban Cooperative Bank, Saraswat welcomed the news and said that this bill would strengthen the cooperatives at grass root level.

Birendra Singh, Chairman of NCCF  said that election provision of new bill would usher in transparency and professionalization in cooperative set up. It is result of our hard work as we went twice before Standing Committee for an effective Bill, he added.

Cooperative leaders cutting across sector are happy with the news as some feel that high handedness of state political bosses would no more weaken cooperative movement. Example of  Tamil Nadu is case in point where election has not taken place for last 29 years.

Other highhandedness such as reducing or increasing the tenure of board to suit political expediency as Mayawati did in case of Uttar Pradesh would also be a thing of past.

The bill also proposes Annual General Body meet once in a year thereby correcting the practice especially in States of not calling AGM for 10 years or more.

National Cooperative Union of India, the apex body of cooperative is suddenly hogging headlines. Its election in March 2010 is said to have been rigged by cooperative mafias. Taking note of the gravity of matter the Central Registrar has appointed an arbitrator to enquire into the matter.

Talking to Indian Cooperative. Com  Ranjit Singh, brother of Late Ajit Singh and son of famed cooperator Tapeshwer Singh said that the constituencies made in the election of governing council was manipulated to favour certain candidates.

If multi state societies form one constituency, housing cooperatives form another and tourism cooperatives make a third one. But some influential person made a  hotch-potch of constituencies leading to multi state societies having members from housing cooperative as  delegates, consumer cooperatives having members from tourism cooperative as delegates and so on and so forth.This was done to increase winning chance  of certain candidates and of course, with the connivance of  the returning officer, claims Ranjit Singh. Mr Singh’s nomination was thus rejected due to illegal manipulation.

Before going to court Mr Singh has filed a petition with Central Registrar who has appointed an arbitrator Mr Sanjiv Gupta to look into the matter. Effort by Indian Cooperative to contact Central Registrar did not materialize.

Readers may be aware that the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), the apex organisation of the Indian Cooperative Movement traces back its origin to 1929. Having been re organised as Indian Cooperative Union, it was renamed later as All India Cooperative Union in 1954 and re-christened as National Cooperative Union of India in 1961.

It aims at promoting and developing the cooperative movement in India.It also intends to educate, guide and assist the people in their efforts to build up and expand the cooperative sector and serve as an exponent of cooperative opinion in accordance with cooperative principles.

Against this backdrop it assumes importance that a body meant to strengthen the movement is itself caught in controversy. In NCCF election Indian Cooperative.com has exposed how returning officer can make mockery of the entire election process.Ram Hatt a candidate could not file nomination as there was was none to receive his papers while the papers of chosen few were collected from a different destination.

Even the choice of returning officer is an issue which if not addressed will reduce the entire cooperative movement as pocket borough of a few.Is the Govt listening?