Maharashtra to start best cooperative housing society award soon

The award will be open for all housing societies irrespective of the size and number of members

With the aim to bring residents of cooperative housing societies together and to come up with out-of-the-box green solutions for issues such as waste disposal, power, water conservation while adopting good and transparent governance in running society affairs and having effective dispute redressal mechanism, the state cooperative department has come up with Best Cooperative Housing Society Award. The award will start from this year end and state and district housing federations have been directed to conduct special sessions to spread awareness.

Interestingly, the department has also recently launched Suvyavasthpan and Tantamukti Gruhnirman Sanstha Abhiyan, similar to the panch system in villages, to resolve petty disputes between society members. The move was taken as these issues, if left unresolved, often leads to personal tussles, which derails the purpose of formation of cooperative welfare society, and results in unwanted complaints which remain pending for years.

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Anil Kawade, commissioner for cooperation and registrar, coop. societies

Community participation

The concept is the brainchild of Anil Kawade, commissioner for cooperation and registrar, cooperative societies (CC and RCS), Maharashtra. He confirmed the announcement about the award and told mid-day, "We had this concept in mind for some time, but amid the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown, we could not announce it. We want to bring the very preamble of cooperative moment back to housing societies, where people should collectively participate in the welfare and development of the entire society and its neighbourhood. This is possible only when there is mutual trust and faith among members, and this can be inculcated through implementation of good and transparent governance and introducing out-of-box concepts to curtail glaring issues such as power, disposal of waste, scarcity of water etc."

He added, "We have come across quite a few societies who have set an example and have laid the foundation of green solutions by setting up solar panels, rain water harvesting, segregation of wet waste by making compost sites within their society, converting society club house/closed flats into isolation wards during the pandemic, etc. Some societies also conduct regular meetings, audits as per the bylaws and as prescribed under the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act. Some others adhere to transparent and good governance. However, all these things are either happening in isolation or in a handful of societies, but a majority of them continue to function as they were. Hence we decided to come up with the award to showcase the examples set by the winning societies to others to inspire them to adapt the same."

‘Everyone benefits'

Kawade said, "State government departments and municipal corporations will benefit with this move as they are pursuing the concepts of solid waste management, water conservation, energy conservation, tree plantation. So local wards should also come forward and provide required assistance/ technical support for such societies so that we can show collective participation for and of the people, for the common welfare of mankind and society."

When asked if the award is open for both small and large societies, Kawade replied in affirmative, stating, "We have decided to keep the award open for all housing societies and there will be different categories for nomination. The best category winners will get a memento and certificate."

"We have roped in district and state housing federations for conducting training in societies to educate residents about the Suvyavasthpan and Tantamukti Gruhnirman Sanstha Abhiyan to resolve petty disputes within the members. We request housing societies to get in touch with and actively participate in district forums. Sometimes even small issues reach police stations and cooperative courts, which we want to avoid. Today people are residing in flats worth crores, but unfortunately are not in talking terms or do not want to cooperate with other residents over trivial matters. This defeats the entire purpose of housing societies," said Kawade.