Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill 2022 

Why in News?

• Recently, the Lok Sabha has  referred the Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill 2022 to a joint committee of Parliament.

Highlights

• The Bill is aimed at overhauling the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002, which was enacted 20 years ago.
• Cooperatives are organizations formed at the grassroots level by people to harness the power of collective bargaining in the marketplace.
• This can mean different kinds of arrangements, such as using a common resource or sharing capital, to derive a common gain that would otherwise be difficult for an individual producer to get.
• In agriculture, cooperative dairies, sugar mills, spinning mills etc. are formed with the pooled resources of farmers who wish to process their produce.
• Amul is perhaps the best-known cooperative society in India.
• Cooperatives are a state subject under the Constitution, meaning they come under the state governments’ jurisdiction, but there are many societies whose members and areas of operation are spread across more than one state.
• For example, most sugar mills along the districts on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border procure cane from both states.
• Cooperatives of more than one state are registered under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act (MSCS) of 2002 Act.
• Their board of directors has representation from all states they operate in.
• Administrative and financial control of these societies is with the central registrar, with the law making it clear that no state government official can wield any control over them.
• The Oppositeion members in the Lok Sabha have argued that the bill seeks to “take away” state governments’ rights.
• Some of the objections are based on the fact that cooperative societies are a state subject. Entry 43 of the Union List (7th Schedule) makes it clear that co-operative societies do not come in the Centre’s domain.
• Entry 43 says – “Incorporation, regulation and winding up of trading corporations, including banking, insurance and financial corporations, but not including co-operative societies”.