The first meeting of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 was held on Thursday at the committee room of Parliament House Annexe Extension, New Delhi, which was presided over by Lok Sabha MP Chandra Prakash Joshi.
Besides the committee members from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, the meeting was also attended by the Union Cooperation Ministry Secretary Gyanesh Kumar, Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies Vijay Kumar and other ministry officials.
During the meeting, the representatives of the Ministry of Cooperation and Ministry of Law and Justice (both Department of Legal Affairs and Legislative Department) briefed the committee on the bill.
Soon after the meeting sharing the details through social media, Chairman Chandra Prakash Joshi wrote on twitter, “The first meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, was convened in New Delhi today. In the said meeting, the members of the committee discussed the bill related to Multi Level State Cooperative Societies”.
Later, talking to the Indian Cooperative one of the committee members from Lok Sabha said, “Members have registered their participation and it was the first meeting. Many more meetings will be organized before concluding the issue.”
On condition of anonymity he said “Members shared their suggestions, which will be compiled and will be taken up in the next meeting. The meeting concluded with general discussions. We are barred from sharing details with media persons”, he added.
Meanwhile, when the Indian Cooperative also contacted C P Joshi for his comment on the meeting, he said “ I am busy right now but I will call you later.
The Committee shall make a report to this House by the last day of the first week of the second part of the Budget Session, 2023.
It bears recalling that when the bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 7th December 2022, several opposition party leaders opposed the bill and called it anti-cooperative. Later on, the bill was referred to the Joint Committee of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.