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April      Last updated: April 29,  5:00 p.m.

From Our Correspondent

The Development Report 2000 has complemented India for the trend for decentralization. It says that the trend for greater decentralization was reinforced in 1992 by the passage of the 73rd and 74th amendments of India's Constitution which offered constitutional recognition to the local governments in the form of Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs)

The 73rd amendment, which came into force on 24-4-1993 made it mandatory for every State to conduct periodical elections to the Panchayats and ensure that once a Panchayat was constituted under the State, it could not remain dissolved for more than six months.

In December 1996, the scope of the 73rd amendment was extended to the scheduled tribe areas through an Act of the Parliament. The Government has, thus, called the 73rd amendment a major step towards democracy in the villages.

But, the 73rd amendment has not resulted in a proper development of the PRIs because it has not ensured the creation of an initial corpus of funds and the regular flow of money for meeting the regular needs of the PRIs. And without any financial resources the PRIs have remained paper tigers only.

Another serious problem has been the friction between elected officials of the PRIs and the local bureaucrats. The bureaucrats do not accept the suggestions made by the PRIs.

Housing Cooperatives

How the bureaucrats are preventing the growth of PRIs is best illustrated by the working of the housing cooperatives.

The 74th amendment of the Constitution, also known as the Nagarpalika Act, was passed by the Parliament in 1992 and became effective from 20-4-93. This landmark legislation provides a common framework for the structure and the mandate of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) for realizing an effective democratic decentralization.

The Act had provided a period of one year to amend the existing laws in order to bring them in conformity with the provisions of Nagarpalika Act.

There are cases illustrative of the working of the housing cooperative societies. (See Box) The removing of the managing committee of the societies on flimsy excuses and appointing administrators has assumed the proportion of a big racket and a big scandal the dimensions of which are not yet known to the Government. It appears that the post of Registrar has developed a vested interest in increasing the number of Administrators and raising their honorarium.

Using the words of Shri N. Vittal the Commissioner of the Central Vigilance Commission, it can be said that the corruption in the housing cooperatives is like the ‘big blue elephant in the room’ which is hardly mentioned or taken note of.

It is a big irony that when Government has been making tall claims about ‘taking democracy to the villages and to the downtrodden’, there is, right in the centre of India's Capital a colony of well over 1,000 highly educated persons, who have been crying for long for the restoration of their right to have an elected Managing Committee for facilitating proper maintenance and development of their colony. A big shame indeed.

When this is the situation in the center of India's Capital, then what will be the condition in the rest of the country? Let us hope the World Bank is not listening.

The Long Pending Bill

In 1989, the inordinately excessive corruption in the office of Registrar had compelled the BJP and the Congress to make a joint demand for the removal of Registrar. Consequently, he was transferred to a place in the North-East. He was sent out of Delhi in spite of the fact that he was son-in-law of an influential woman MP of Congress elected from Delhi (Koral Bagh)

The Brahm Prakash Committee report submitted in 1991 made proposals with a view to giving a genuine character to cooperatives and divesting bureaucracy of rule making powers. The Committee proposed that the Registrar or the Government should have no powers for superseding the Managing Committees.

In 1995, the Committee on Model Cooperative Act had made far-reaching recommendations for reducing "unfettered powers" of the Registrar. The Committee said that the powers to supersede Managing Committee have been grossly misused for "extra-cooperative considerations". Even the safeguards provided in the Act are maneuvered wrongfully with a view to gaining ulterior ends. Surprisingly enough, the Registrar can take over the management by appointing Administrators when the Government has not lent even a single rupee to the society.

Under the Act Registrar cannot be sued for the misuse of his powers. The bureaucrats work hand in glove with the Registrar for promoting their interests.

In 1997, a Model Act had been prepared and a Bill had also been cleared by the Union Cabinet of UF Government when it fell.

It is high time that the NDA Government takes action for the liberation of Housing Cooperatives from the clutches of the Registrar.

How the bureaucrats have stifled the spirit of the 73rd and 74th amendments is best illustrated by the example of one ULB in form of a Housing Cooperative Society of Delhi.

The society registered in 1955, has been without an election and a Managing Committee for the last nine years! An idea about the suffering of well over 1,000 inhabitants of the colony of this society which is situated right in the centre of Delhi, can be formed from the following facts:

In 1992, the Registrar of Societies sent a letter to the Society asking them to make allotments of the vacant plots to some persons who were not in the list approved by the Cooperative Tribunal. The Managing Committee of the Society expressed its inability to do so as it was violation of the orders of the Cooperative Tribunal.

The Registrar removed the Managing Committee and appointed an Administrator for a period of six months with a monthly honorarium of Rs 500.

According to the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act 1972, the aggregate period for the appointment of the Administrator should not exceed three years. But the Administrator continued to function even after the end of the three-year period.

In 1997, the Registrar appointed another Administrator at an astonishingly high monthly honorarium of Rs 7,000 for working only one hour in a week! This Administrator has passed on Rs 25 lakh to the MCD in the name of payments for handing over the services. He did it inspite of the written undertaking that he will make no payment to MCD, unless the entire amount demanded by them is raised, and, in case of inability to raise the required amount, he will return the collected money to the members from whom it had been collected as loans. The MCD is not doing anything against the money received by them and the Administrator is not asking the MCD to either do the work or return the money. The Society is losing about Rs 30,000 every month as interest on the amount passed on to the MCD by the Administrator. The Administrator is working for promoting the interests of the MCD and not that of the Society for reasons best known to him.

The residents are suffering great hardship on account of the very poor state of services and facilities. In 1996, therefore, a writ was filed in the High Court for ordering the elections of the Society. The arguments had concluded in October 1997 and the judgement is awaited.

During the last eight years, the Administrators have squandered the entire funds of the society and have not submitted the audited accounts to the AGM even for a single year! This is a serious violation of the rules of the Cooperative Societies. Registrar has been repeatedly asked to direct the Administrator to prepare the accounts and get them approved by the AGM. But the Registrar has not given any reply in spite of repeated reminders and personal visits to Registrar's office.

All this has happened because in 1992 the Registrar had removed the duly elected Managing Committee for not carrying out his illegal directives of allotting plots to the children of some big bureaucrats who have been holding the highest positions in the Central Government. These bureaucrats are really very big persons: One of them has been charge sheeted by the CBI and let out on bail for very serious offences committed during the period of service; and yet another person is known to have made lots of money by getting the plots allotted in the name of his family members and selling them later at enormous profits.