Reason: Governor TV Rajeshwar has not given his assent to the UP Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act 2009 for extending their term by another six months.

The assent of the Governor is unlikely to come for at least next two weeks as he is leaving for US on a private visit on March 5. He is expected to return on March 19.

The amendment Bill was passed by the Assembly during the recently- concluded budget session and is currently under the consideration of the Governor. “No cooperative body can function without a management committee headed either by an elected chairman or an administrator appointed by the state government,” said BP Singh, Additional Registrar, cooperative societies.

“This will lead to a crisis-like situation in conducting the day-to-day management of the central cooperative societies like the district cooperative banks and the apex cooperative bodies like the UP Co-operative Bank,” added Singh.

“We are waiting for the direction from the government for making alternative arrangements for the managements of the cooperative bodies,” he said.

Under Section 438 of the UP Cooperative Societies Act, the government has the power to make alternative arrangements for running the management of the cooperative bodies, said Singh.

According to Singh, since the Lok Sabha polls process is on, the government can appoint the officials of the department as administrators after obtaining the approval of the Election Commission. The 18-month tenure of the administrators, who were appointed by the BSP regime, is ending on March 5.

The government had introduced an amendment Bill during the budget session of the Assembly for increasing the tenure by six months. The reason cited by the government for increasing the tenure was that it was not possible to complete the elections of the cooperative bodies before March 5.

In September 2007, the BSP government had appointed party loyalists as administrators of the cooperative bodies for a period of one year by amending the Act. Later, by another amendment the term of the administrators was extended by six months which is completing on March 5.

With the Governor yet to give his assent to the Bill, the government’s move to introduce reservation for the SC, ST and OBCs in cooperative societies is also hanging in mid-air. In November last year, the government had sent an ordinance for enforcing reservation in cooperative bodies, but the Governor refused to promulgate it.