Vibha Sharma
New Delhi, December 20
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday referred a contentious Bill on cooperative societies, the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, to a joint committee of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
This was done after Union Home Minister Amit Shah moved the resolution that the Bill to further amend the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act be referred to a joint committee of the two Houses.
The committee includes 21 members from the Lok Sabha.
Shah said the committee would present the report to the House by the last day of the first week of the second part of the Budget Session. The House recommended to the Rajya Sabha that its members join the committee and communicate names to it.
The Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, generated considerable heat when it was introduced in the House on December 7.
Congress, CPM, TMC, DMK and RSP members objected to the legislation saying “it was a state subject and outside the legislative competence of the union”, “could lead to concentration of power in the Centre and complete centralisation of authority” and hence should be referred to the standing committee for scrutiny.
The Bill aims to bring transparency and accountability in the sector and “strengthen governance, reform electoral process, improve the monitoring mechanism and ensure ease-of-doing business in multi-state cooperative societies”.
