Mumbai: ‘Poor response on portal to solve society plaints’

Deepak Taware, commissioner, cooperation and registrar, cooperative societies, (in the centre) recently met State Housing Federation officials including advocate Shreeprasad Parab, expert director, to discuss various cooperative issues

Irked by the lack of prompt response through Sahakar Samvad, an online platform started by the state cooperative department, the state housing federation recently met the commissioner for cooperation and registrar cooperative societies, at Pune. Many residents from various cooperative housing societies in Mumbai had conveyed their dismay to the state housing federation regarding the dismal response on the online platform.

The state housing federation is confident that the commissioner will soon be directing the cooperative registrars to strictly adhere to the portal's Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). According to federation office-bearers, a few department officials were not diligently following the SOPs thereby causing an inconvenience

"The commissioner is also exploring ways to put the said portal to its optimum usage by making additional provisions for allowing cooperative societies to even make their written submissions, in ongoing adjudication matters before the cooperative registrars," said advocate Shreeprasad Parab, director, State Housing Federation.

Confirming the meeting held on June 13, with Deepak Taware, newly appointed commissioner, advocate Parab said, "We discussed various issues at length pertaining to cooperative housing societies and three major issues of concern raised were -the Sahakar Samvad portal issue, issues pertaining to deemed conveyance and self-redevelopment.

Over 3,700 plaints registered

According to advocate Parab, the Sahakar Samvad online Portal was launched by the state cooperative department in association with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Housing Federation in October 2023. Till date 3,700 complaints addressed to the registrar's office were registered. When informed that the complaints were not getting resolved as many users were not satisfied by the response, advocate Parab said, "We have received similar concerns from end users and we have found that the SOPs issued by the department concerned were not being adhered to by the department officials diligently."

B B Shetty, chartered accountant, is unhappy with the portal

When asked to elaborate, advocate Parab said, "We have found that in certain cases, complaints which were filed on the portal and forwarded to the registrar having no territorial jurisdiction were closed by the registrar instead of transferring them to the registrar concerned as prescribed in the SOP, which was a matter of concern, as query raised by the end user, would remain unresolved, but the portal may show it as closed."

Adhere to SOP

"We have made a request to direct the registrars to strictly adjudicate the online complaints as per the SOP framed by the state. The commissioner has taken cognisance of the concerns raised and has assured to issue instructions to strictly adhere to the SOP while handling complaints of end users," Parab said.

SOP training next month

The commissioner acted positively on the suggestions and has agreed to provide an online training session on SOP to the officials in July and also agreed to put the issue before the state for appropriate decisions along with recommendations for the other issues raised by the federation.

‘Complaints unresolved'

Chartered accountant B B Shetty, a resident of Oshiwara said, "I had made a specific complaint on the portal, requesting the registrar concerned to disqualify our society committee for not calling in a special general body meeting as per requests members. My complaint fell on deaf ears and there was no response from the deputy registrar concerned who was to act on the complaint." When asked to elaborate, Shetty said, "Over the last few months, my wife and I had made separate complaints on the portal raising three different issues pertaining to our society. But we have had a bad experience of using the portal on these occasions. The deputy registrar, of Mhada in my case, directed the society office bearers to share specific documents sought by us. Though the society did not comply with the order, no action was taken by the registrar concerned."

MahaSEWA lauds portal

Chartered accountant Ramesh Prabhu, founder chairman of Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MahaSEWA) said, "Sahakar Samvad is a great joint initiative. Citizens should start using the portal. In order to increase the use of the portal, the department should display on notice boards in every ward/registrar's office that complaints will be accepted in online mode only. Going forward, the hearing also should be organised through an online system. Details of each society must be updated on the portal so that once the complaint is made the copy also gets served on the society. The department officers also need to use the portal to its full extent to reduce the inflow of complainants walking into the registrar's office."

Commissioner says

Deepak Taware, commissioner for cooperation and registrar cooperative societies.
‘Our aim is to take the online portal beyond a mere grievances platform, which is between the complainant and the registrar concerned, at present. We want to use the platform as an interface to bring all the stakeholders (cooperative housing societies and office bearers, housing federation and the cooperation department) together with an intent to enhance the smooth functioning of cooperative housing societies. Also, gradually, the platform will handle other issues pertaining to co-operative housing societies.