Gujarat Co-op societies amendment Bill passed

Among the amendments in the Bill is a proposal to decrease the minimum number of persons required to register a cooperative housing society or a cooperative housing service society from 10 to eight.

Another proposed amendment has a provision of appointment of an authority that may be notified by the state government for appropriate use of the Bad Debt Fund of the society to write-off bad debts.

The Bill also proposes to amend a provision related to deciding the priority of deciding the payment of creditors of a cooperative society that has gone into liquidation. It proposes to give authority of deciding the priority to the state government that currently lies with the liquidator.

In another amendment, the Bill provides the authority to the state government to grant extension to the winding up process of a cooperative society beyond the current limit of 10 years.

Also, the Bill has proposed to give authority to the state government to fix a transfer fee in case a unit of a cooperative housing society is sold off by the owner to another party. Vishwakarma said that with this amendment, the chairman/secretary of a cooperative housing society will not be allowed to fix the transfer fee in an arbitrary manner.