MUMBAI: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday defended his government’s decision to amend the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, saying the move was necessitated by the “legal impasse” over the election of the Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union’s chairperson.
This move will pave the way for the Mahayuti-backed panel to elect its own chairperson although it lost the elections to the RSSSA. Fadnavis claimed that the government had no interest in taking control of the cooperative, popularly known as the Gokul Cooperative, and was merely trying to resolve the statutory deadlock. The Mahayuti members subsequently stayed away from the meeting to elect the chairperson, leading to the quorum remaining unfulfilled. So far, government-nominated directors never had voting rights. “Our intervention was limited to fulfilling its statutory responsibility. Local leaders Hasan Mushrif, Vinay Kore and Satej Patil should sit together and arrive at a consensus. If they decide amicably, there will be no need for government intervention.
The so-called impasse occurred after the panel backed by the Mahayuti won 12 seats in the Gokul Board elections held on October 18 while the Rajarshi Shahu Shetkari Samvichari Aghadi (RSSSA), the Congress-backed panel led by Satej Patil, won 13. The amendment will increase the government-nominated directors on cooperative bodies with a turnover of over ₹ 500 crore from two to five and also give them voting rights. Fadnavis claimed to be indifferent to controlling the cooperative, which has around 5,000 voters and whose influence is largely confined to one district and a few talukas.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Satej Patil said he would go ahead with the November 9 protest rally against the government’s manoeuvre, which was directly “trampling on the mandate of farmers”. Fadnavis, said that if after three meetings, there was no quorum, the government administrator would automatically take over. “To ensure that the elected representatives get voting rights, we have given voting rights to government-nominated members,” he claimed. The CM said the decision was taken by the state cabinet after leaders from all three ruling alliance partners brought the legal complication to its notice. “We sought the advocate-general’s opinion and consulted the law and judiciary department before finalising the proposal,” he claimed. However, an official from the cooperation department had earlier told HT that the decision to grant voting rights to four government-nominated members was taken despite opposition from officers in the cooperation and law and judiciary departments. “The state government has no particular interest in controlling such an institution,” he said. “The government has trampled upon the mandate of the farmers,” he said. “The people of Kolhapur will not forget this.”
Immediately after this, and despite huge criticism, the Mahayuti government on Friday issued an ordinance to amend the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act. Meanwhile Satej Patil said he would go ahead with the protest rally planned in Kolhapur on Monday.
