Badal gives nod to policy for sale of land/building of cooperative institutions

Chandigarh, September 10, 2012: In a bid make the cooperative institutions economically viable and financially self-sustainable, the Punjab government has come out with a transparent policy in place for the sale of land/building held by cooperative organisations so that the income accrued on this count could be invested prudently on the capital expenditure and income generating activities.   

A decision to this effect was taken by the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal by giving nod to the proposal mooted by the cooperation department in this regard.  Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the CMO said that the policy has clearly stipulated the income generated on account of sale of land and building held by the cooperative institutions would not be utilised on the routine expenditure like disbursement of salaries to its employees.  In case any cooperative institution or organisation was in the winding up mode, thus the proceeds could be utilized accordingly within the prescribed rules and regulations. 

It may be recalled the Registrar, Cooperative Societies was the competent authority to accord approval to the concerned cooperative institutions for the sale of its land/building. 

Under the new policy, the Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer or President of primary cooperative society or institution which intends to sale its land/building would have to put the comprehensive case before the Board of Directors (BoDs) along with his recommendations citing the reasons for the sale.  In case a resolution was passed for the sale of land/building by the BoDs or MD then the case would be sent directly to Registrar Cooperative Societies for his approval. 

The policy has recommended that the open option was the best route to fetch maximum market rate and therefore, the procedure of open auction should only be adopted.  The reserve price for the land/building to be sold off would be fixed by the concerned Deputy Commissioner on the basis of prevailing market price. 

In case any cooperative institution failed to get the reserved price from the open auction held twice for the sale of land/building then subsequently the reserved price could be slashed to maximum by 20%, for which the Managing Director of the Apex cooperative institution, Chief Executive Officer of the central cooperative institution and the managing committee of the primary cooperative societies would be competent. 

Consequently, the cooperative societies could re-auction the sale of land and building in accordance with the reduced reserved price.   To ensure transparency and accountability in the entire auction process a representative of the Registrar cooperative societies would be appointed as observer.   In case of the sale of land/building belonging to apex institutions then the representative of Registrar Cooperative Societies i.e. officer not below the rank Joint Registrar would be the observer. 

Likewise, the representatives of the  Registrar and Deputy Registrar Cooperative Societies viz. officers not below the rank of Assistant Registrar would be the observers in both the cases of sale of land under the jurisdiction of central and primary cooperative institutions. 

The video recording of the entire proceedings of the auction had been made mandatory under the new policy to ensure transparency and the compact disk of the recording would be kept under sealed cover by the apex/central cooperative institutions for record. 

Similarly, the primary cooperative societies would also keep the sealed CDs with them and also send the copies of the same to the offices of the Deputy Registrar Cooperative Societies for record. 

In case any cooperative institution was not willing to dispose of its land through open auction than it can undertake the sale of such land through PUDA or other development authorities like GMADA, GLADA after getting it developed by them or directly to these authorities.  In such situation, the concerned authority would make the payment to the cooperative institution after deducting the development cost and other genuine charges. 

The policy also envisages that no other procedure would be followed by any cooperative institution for the sale of its land/building.  The policy also stipulated that in case the land/building was needed by any government department, municipal corporation/committee, cooperative or government undertaking for development in the public interest, then the concerned cooperative institution would pass resolution to effect such transfer of land/building with the approval Registrar Cooperative Societies.  In such cases there would be no need to follow the process of open auction and the price of land to be transferred in the given situation would be determined by the concerned deputy commissioner of the district. 

The Registrar Cooperative Societies would ensure strictly implementation of this policy for the sale of land/building within the jurisdiction of various cooperative institutions.