PONDA: The members of the newly formed Task Force, headed by Mr Prakash Velip, on Sunday opposed the amendment to Section 59(6) (a) of the Goa Co-operative Act, 2001 terming it as an arbitrary.

As per the amendment, the elected director has to executive the bond and he is jointly or severally responsible for any of the decision of the society during the tenure. If he fails to do so (to executive the bond) in 15 days time, it is deemed that he has vacated the office. The members have also raised their protest to another amendment which stated that the registrar of the co-operative societies will have the suo moto powers to inspect the functioning of the society.

Addressing the media, here in Ponda, Mr Velip, said that they had opposed the said amendment tooth and nail. "We had opposed the amendment when it was proposed. But the department of Cooperation went ahead with it and in the month of May 2010, the Governor of Goa gave his consent to it and it was later declared on the gazette officially,’’ Mr Velip and Mr Narendra Savoikar said while addressing the reporters. They said that they (the board of directors) are elected by the share holders and that they are accountable to them. "Why the department is trying to impose such arbitrary amendments on us, we don’t know. But, what we know is that it is surely undemocratic,’’ Mr Savoikar said.

He further said that one third of the board of directors or the one fifth of the members of the society can write to the registrar and then he has the right to inspect the
society affairs.

When asked, why did they keep quite at the time when it was proposed to amend the Act, these members said that they had raised objections to it earlier.

"We had written again, some 15 days back, to all the concerned authorities, including the Cooperative Secretary, Law Secretary, office of the Minister of Co-operation, expressing our opposition to these amendments,"
they said. Mr Savoikar disclosed that the Task Force had several meetings at Bicholim, Margao, Panaji, Mapusa and Ponda to raise the objections to the amendments.

The Task Force includes the chairman of the Goa Dairy, Mr Madhav Sahakari, Mr Subhas Phaldessai, Mr Subhas Halankar, Mr R S Naik and advocate, Mr Manohar Adpaikar.