Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002: An Analysis

With the passing of the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Bill, 2002, a new era in the cooperative history has been ushered, which would enable the cooperatives to function as real democratic and autonomous institutions for the mutual benefit of the members the Bill; to restore the faith of the members in these institutions and to increase awareness among than, we provide the major highlights of the Bill. Deregulation of cooperative law is the need of the hour for the cooperative sector, if it has to strategically position itself in the market economy. Today, those enterprises are highly successful; they are de-regulated and are able to independently chart out their path of development. However, cooperatives being member-based organisations have to safeguard the interests of their members. They must also ensure that being people institutions, they have to look after the welfare of the masses, and although the cooperatives need to develop their competency to face the market, the policy approach towards cooperatives must still revolve around providing financial assistance to needy and deserving cases. The national policy on cooperatives should be nurtured so that they can emerge as democratic and autonomous entities. The financial help to them on the basis of merit is very much a part of the nurturing process. The current trends indicate that the states have been very slow in amending their Acts to ensure the democratic, autonomous and self-reliant nature of the cooperatives. In a nutshell, the cooperatives must be able to grow along healthy lines.