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

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 platformThe state housing federation is confident that the commissioner will soon be directing the cooperative registrars to strictly adhere to the portalrsquos Standard Operating Procedures SOP According to federation officebearers a few department officials were not diligently following the SOPs thereby causing an inconvenienceldquoThe 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 registrarsrdquo said advocate Shreeprasad Parab director State Housing FederationConfirming the meeting held on June 13 with Deepak Taware newly appointed commissioner advocate Parab said ldquoWe discussed various issues at length pertaining to cooperative housing societies and three major issues of concern raised were ndashthe Sahakar Samvad portal issue issues pertaining to deemed conveyance and selfredevelopmentOver 3700 plaints registeredAccording 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 3700 complaints addressed to the registrarrsquos office were registered When informed that the complaints were not getting resolved as many users were not satisfied by the response advocate Parab said ldquoWe 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 diligentlyrdquoB B Shetty chartered accountant is unhappy with the portalWhen asked to elaborate advocate Parab said ldquoWe 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 closedrdquoAdhere to SOPldquoWe 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 usersrdquo Parab saidSOP training next monthThe 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 federationlsquoComplaints unresolvedrsquoChartered accountant B B Shetty a resident of Oshiwara said ldquoI 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 complaintrdquo When asked to elaborate Shetty said ldquoOver 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 concernedrdquoMahaSEWA lauds portalChartered accountant Ramesh Prabhu founder chairman of Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association MahaSEWA said ldquoSahakar 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 wardregistrarrsquos 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 registrarrsquos officerdquoCommissioner saysDeepak Taware commissioner for cooperation and registrar cooperative societieslsquoOur 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 cooperative housing societies