AWHO as a Multi State Co-operative Housing Society

AWHO as a Multi State Co-operative
Housing Society
Chandra Nath ∗
May 5, 2014
∗ nath@computer.org He is an Independent researcher engaged in research in information
security, privacy, law & justice.
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Contents
I Introduction 3
II Cooperatives 3
III The Tragedy that befell AWHO 3
IV How AWHO became a Military Autocracy & Tyranny 4
V Multi-state Home Buyer consumer cooperative 5
VI How AWHO Home Buyer was Stripped off Self Governance 6
VIIThe 97th amendment to the Constitution 6
VIIIAWHO Concept of Cooperative 7
IX Proof of the Pudding 8
X The AG: The Benevolent King Emperor 8
XI Violated the Rochdale Principles 9
XIIPublic Authorities 9
XIIIThe Tragedy in the Making 9
XIVThe New Benevolent King Emperor 10
XV Absence of Corruption 11
XVIOpen governance 11
XVIIConclusion 12
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AWHO AS A MULTI STATE
CO-OPERATIVE HOUSING SOCIETY
I
Introduction
Rights of the members of the Society were violated by men who had neither
the vision to understand the pioneers of the co-operative movement
like Rochdale nor the frame of mind to respect the rights of
the citizen under the rule of law. When writing about AWHO, the statement
made by US President Reagen instantly springs to mind:“The nine most terrifying
words in the English language are: ’I’m from the government and I’m
here to help.” 1
II
Cooperatives
Cooperatives represent a third sector of the economy, different from private
enterprises and from public sector entities. Although some examples of concrete
actions are provided, it is not possible to give very specific details on
all the issues covered. Nevertheless, cooperatives stand for transparency and
accountability.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_cooperative
2. http://goo.gl/QaWWLz : CONSUMER COOPERATIVES: DEMOC-
RACY, DEVELOPMENT, EMPLOYMENT
WHAT IS A COPERATIVE? PAGE 3
THE COOPERATIVE VALUES AND PRINCIPLES.. PAGE 5
ENSURING THE COOPERATIVE DIFFERENCE PAGE 10
COOPERATIVES & MARKET ECONOMY PAGE 12
III
The Tragedy that befell AWHO
The member of a consumer cooperative is an individual person acting as a
consumer. Therefore the aim of consumer cooperatives is to meet the needs
and aspirations of consumers. The accountability of managers of a consumer
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhYJS80MgYA
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cooperative is to the consumers themselves and not to shareholders. Democratic
accountability is direct because every individual member has a right
to participate in the general assemblies. Consumer cooperatives are enterprises
owned by consumers, managed democratically, aiming at fulfilling the
needs and aspirations of the members. 2
IV
How AWHO became a Military Autocracy
& Tyranny
Had the AWHO top brass been educated on this fundamental idea, they
would have developed AWHO differently. Instead, they developed a real estate
business owned and operated by the Adjutant General, a PSO at Army
headquarters and “selling real estate” to a captive market of soldiers and
veteran. In doing this, Adjuant General used the man in uniform as employees
of AWHO, not because it was consistent with the idea of cooperative
but because he has the military law to fall back on in getting things done
easier, the only model he knew and was constrained by his long military
experience and thinking! Considering that a large work force in the military
retire very early, he could have used these members of the Society who
had economical interest in the Society to the advantage but AG thought
of military discipline for his work force of the serving soldier/officer instead
of the cooperative principles. Had it been done using the cooperative way,
the self-interest of the member community would have kept AWHO on the
rails as far as the protection of rights of the members were concerned. The
serving soldier instead worked for reinforcing the autocracy and tyranny of
the AG rather than the democratic principles on which co-operatives were
concieved by Rochdale! Misusing serving soldiers and officers were neither
desirable nor advantageous for the tax payer ctizen. As it turned out, it
did not prove advantageous to the AWHO members either. Philosophically
speaking, the behemoth of AWHO turned out to be a military Formation
equivalent to a division or Corps commanded by the General Officer Commanding
of the rank of a Lieutenant General, who also happenned to be the
Adjutant General, a PSO at Army Headquarters. The Chief wanted AG to
head AWHO and AG wanted an army of soldiers and officers who are under
military law for their own selfish reasons. None of the men in uniform raised
an alarm when the AWHO was turnng to be an autocratic, tyrannical and
2 Euro Coops, CONSUMER CO-OPERATIVES DEMOCRACY,DEVELOPMENT,
EMPLOYMENT, http://www.eurocoop.org/dmdocuments/publication_report/
ConsumerCooperatives08.pdf
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centrally controllled military bureaucratic organization rather than a vibrant
democratic consumer member controlled consumer co-operative concieved by
Rochdale as the above paper describes.
V
Multi-state Home Buyer consumer cooperative
AWHO is a multi-state Home Buyer consumer cooperative built to fulfill the
aspirations of the veteran and serving soldier home buyer to own a home
and NOT a “public enterprise” governed by the “public servant” to be built
with public money (or for that matter Regimental Funds) for “charitable
purposes” to be dispensed at the benevolence of the ”KING EMPEROR”
the Adjutant General. AWHO in its enthusiasm for “charitable purposes”
for the veteran and the soldier managed to get exemption from Income Tax
stating that it was “Regimental Funds” which is a stark lie and cheating
the tax payer, the government and the AWHO Member. Every ruppee that
was surrupticiously made as profit of AWHO came from the pocket of the
AWHO member ( veteran and the soldier) and NOT from the Regimental
Funds. AWHO, a society keeping 100% of the profits which it should not
have made in the first place. When greed overcame the AWHO, it kept the
profit figures secret from the members lest they shuld object. This itself is
strange because
1. If members are not members of the Consumer cooperative, why is a
“public servant”, the Adjutant General, in the business of real estate
business?
2. By declaring members are not members but just allottees, members
were denied all the rights and privileges of members like
(a) Being eligible for highest office of governance
(b) Being eligible to vote for the Board of Management.
(c) Having authority to supervise the functioning of AWHO
(d) Supervisory control of the finances of AWHO.
(e) Not even eligible to see the audited accounts of the assets and
liabilities and profit report of AWHO
(f) democratically approving the rules before their intoduction.
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VI
How AWHO Home Buyer was Stripped
off Self Governance
In one stroke, the members were removed from all governance of the Society.
This a master stroke of genius of the Adjutant General who was just another
founding member. And he appoints himself as life time appontment of the
Chairman of AWHO. Of course, when the AG changes due to posting or
retirement, the Chairman, AWHO also passes on to the new AG. This was
surreptitiously passed off as meeting the resuirements of the periodical and
recurring election of Chairman of the Society and the members of the Board
of Management. With this deception, the military coup d’etat of the democaratiacally
governed Society was complete! Worse still, the Home Buyer
cooperative was taken over by the real estate builder, the Adjutant General
of Army Headquarters! Thus AWHO became a builder controlled Society
with no semblance of Home-buyer/consumer Society but yet able to enforce
rules of the Society on the Home buyer/consumer! AWHO thus became just
a facade of a Society but actally a 100% the real estate builder interest controlled
with none of the members wiser as to what has hit them in the name
of “Welfare of the Soldier”!
VII
The 97th amendment to the Constitution
The 97th amendment to the Constitution of India specifically defines a multi
state co-operative society with objective not confined to a state registered
under any law for the time being in force relating to such co-operative society.
The salient features of the Amendment to the Constitution are:
1. Insertion of new article 43 B in Part IV of the Constitution providing
for the State obligation to promote voluntary formation, autonomous
functioning, democratic control and professional management of the
cooperative societies;
2. Incorporation of cooperative societies on the principles of voluntary
formation, democratic member control, member economic participation
and autonomous functions;
3. Conduct of election of a cooperative society by an independent authority;
4. Fix term of five years of office bearers of the cooperative society;
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5. Supersession of Board of cooperative society for a period of not exceeding
six months;
6. Independent professional audit of the cooperative societies;
7. Convening of the General Body meeting of every cooperative society
within a period of six months of the close of the financial year;
8. Access to every member of the society to the books, information and
the accounts of the cooperative society;
9. Filing of the returns by every cooperative society within six months of
the close of every financial year;
10. Free, fair, impartial and timely elections of cooperative societies by the
State Election Commission or by any other appropriate and independent
body as may be provided by State law;
11. Audit of the cooperative societies to be carried by the auditors from
the government approved panel of auditors or firms;
12. Maximum number of 21 Directors to be applicable to all cooperative
societies irrespective of their size; and
13. The Legislature of a State make provisions for cooption of members of
the Board of persons with experience in Banking, management, finance
and specialization in any other field relating to the objects and activities
of the co-operative society as Member of the Board of such Society.
14. Co-opted members shall not exceed two in number.
15. Election of the Board will be conducted by the State election commission
with the members voting.
16. Co-opted members not to be eligible to be elected as office-bearers of
the Board.
The idea is to ensure democratic control of the Society by Members.
VIII
AWHO Concept of Cooperative
In case of AWHO, every letter and the spirit of the cooperative is thwarted
as follows:
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1. No general body will meet,
2. No elections to Board.
3. Only coopted members (Ex-officio as AWHO calls it) that too exceeding
2 (actually nearly 8 or 9) will be eligible to be Members of the Board
and that too all nominated or usurped on their own as against the
Constitution of India amendment which says coopted members are not
even eligible to become office bearers of the Board!
It is total topsy turvy of the Constitutional provisions (violated with
deliberate abandon) for the governance of the cooperative perhaps because
the Society was registered under the wrong Act: Registration of Societies Act
1860 instead of the proper multi state cooperative law and the constitutional
amendment passed by the Parliament of independant India.
IX
Proof of the Pudding
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. No wonder that AWHO has
violated the letter and spirit of the constitution and 97th Amendment and
has turned out to be the monstrous tyranny by the very co-opted members (
who are there NOT because they are experts in the objects and activities of
the co-operative society as required by the Constitution of India) and ruled
by them through secret and unpublished rules (many of which are against
the Constitution of India and statutes ) totally against the interests of the
members.
X
The AG: The Benevolent King Emperor
The Benevolent King Emperor (Adjutant General) and his appointee MD,
AWHO have turned out to be “not so benevolent” and turned out instead
tyrants who ruled as they pleased, ruled by secret unpublished rules, cheated
the members of their rights, their money, the quality of service provided
and the quality of construction, quality of the architectural items of the
houses and the schedule all without paying compensation to the consumers
as required by the law. No thought or actual experiment were required to
come to the conclusion that the “The Benevolent King Emperor” does not
work in 21st century where democracy had replaced most of the empires.
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XI
Violated the Rochdale Principles
Thus AWHO has violated the Rochdale Principles of Cooperatives based
on the values of selfhelp, selfresponsibility, democracy, equality, equity and
solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe
in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring
for others. And AWHO went against each one of these principles. At first
glance,this may seem a set of theoretical ideas difficult to implement in practice
but the cooperative movement has developed tools to bring these values
to real life.( http://www.eurocoop.org/dmdocuments/publication_
report/ConsumerCooperatives08.pdf )
XII
Public Authorities
How can public authorities better take into consideration the specific nature
of cooperatives? It has to be assumed that:
1. Public authorities respect the aspirations of individual citizens and the
democratic process through which they establish cooperatives; by definition,
in a democratic society public authorities do not undermine the
will of civil society;
2. Public authorities share some of the same goals as cooperatives such as
sustainable development, growth and employment and therefore their
actions are complementary.
If these two assumptions are correct, the logical conclusion is that public
authorities should not only create a favorable legal, economic and social
environment for cooperatives but they should also actively promote the creation
and activity of cooperatives. Creating a cooperative society should
be as simple, cheap and unbureaucratic as any other type of enterprise but
unfortunately sometimes it is not the case.
Representative of “We the People” did this by coming up with the 97th
Amendment to the Constitution of India. Co-operative Society has now
come part of the constitution of india after passage of this constitutional
amendment.
XIII
The Tragedy in the Making
But our own Military Brass controlling the AWHO was neither aware of
the constitution of India nor was aware of its implication to “we the people”.
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Instead of respecting the constitutional amendment, it has violated the letter
and spirit of this constitutional amendment including:
1. Rochdale Principles of co-operatives.
2. Statutes handed down by the British for disciplined demcratically governed
society registered under Registration of Societies Act of 1860.
3. Consumer Cooperative Laws of the land.
4. Domain laws of Consumer protection.
5. Domain laws of real estate business.
6. Constitution of India and its 97th amendment
XIV
The New Benevolent King Emperor
And all this in the name of “welfare” of the veteran and the soldier and in the
best interests of the “Benevolent King Emperor”, Chairman & BoM, AWHO
, MD, AWHO, and the Board of Governors, AWHO and its President, the
Chief of Army Staff!
Comes now the New Benevolent King Emperor, President, User Committee
appointed by the MD, AWHO. The military has sworn to protect the
Constitution of India from enemies foreign and domestic. At least that is
what he had sworn with “We the People” of India as silent witness to the
proceedings.
Long live the trust the lowly members repose on the new Benevolence
of the King Emperor. And we live in a democratic republic of India in this
21st century where royal prerogative is thing of the past but then that is
just incidental to the mindset of the subjects of the Royalty which can be as
subjugated as the subjects of the Royalty of the 12, 13 and 14th centuries of
Europe and Asia!
Long Live the new Benevolent King Emperor and the trust we, the “subjects”
repose on HIM. There is reason why the election to the management
of the the Owners Cooperative can not be left to the owners and the reasons
are well known to AWHO and the Chairman, AWHO. They had screwed
up the AWHO Cooperative Society and they can not rest till they screw up
the governance of the Owners Society, too! How can the task be left to the
owners of the dwelling units? It is against all the laws of the land, but then,
who is bothereed of the laws in AWHO, any way.
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XV
Absence of Corruption
The absence of corruption - conventionally defined as the use of public power
for private gain - is one of the hallmarks of a society governed by the rule
of law, as corruption is a manifestation of the extent to which government
officials abuse their power or fulfill their obligations under the law. Forms of
corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, improper influence by public
or private interests, and misappropriation of funds or other resources. 3
“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light
the most efficient policeman.” OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY -
CHAPTER V The Louis D. Brandeis
By total lack of transparency and refusal to answer any serious communication
with the Society, AWHO working exactly as a “private sole proprietor”
ensures that the members whose money is used on trust is not allowed to
have even an inkling of the corruption, misuse and mismanagement in construction
of the houses.
XVI
Open governance
Open governance is essential to the rule of law. It involves engagement,
access, participation, and collaboration between the government and its citizens,
and plays a crucial role in the promotion of accountability. Requesting
information from public authorities is an important tool to empower citizens
by giving them a way to voice their concerns and demand accountability
from their governments. Open government is far more than transparency,
and encompasses elements such as clear, publicized, and stable laws; administrative
proceedings that are open for public participation; official drafts of
laws and regulations that are available to the public; and the availability of
official information. 4 . Inspite of all this, we have our Society, which has
been declared an “instrumentality of the state” 5 fighting tooth and nail for
total lack of transparency, no right to information to the members and no
right to reply. There must indeed be a lot they(AWHO) want to conceal
from us the members!
3 http://worldjusticeproject.org/factors/absence-of-corruption
4 http://worldjusticeproject.org/factors/open-government
5 vide Delhi High Court ruling xxxxxxxxxxx
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XVII
Conclusion
Let me close with another quote from President Reagen:
“Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite
at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”
You can easily say that about AWHO considering that they could charge
an escalation of 480% where as the industry cost escalation of construction
for the period was only 78% and would refuse to reveal in what item the
cost has gone up so tremendously and if the reality of details of escalation
if revealed it will embarass the country as if it is a national security secret.
It would embarrass the Chairman, AWHO, no doubt, because it will open
a “Pandoras Box” of corruption, mis-governance, cheating and violaton of
all laws to boot in AWHO. In fact, the irresponsibility is like that of the
Hotel who would refuse to reveal the break down of the bill but expects the
customer to pay it up with out knowing how the bill added upto 400% over
and above the the expected amount. Hence, it fits in with what Reagen said
about baby with the alimentary canal with big apetite and greed for money
and power at one end and total lack of responsibility at the other end. This
is inspite of the fact that the Chairman, BoM is only a trustee and under
Trusteeship they are bound to full disclosure to the beneficiaries!
“Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness;
the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our
affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one
encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is
a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing,
but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its
worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed
to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect
in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is
heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we
suffer.” 6
AWHO usurped & controlled by “public servants” is prepared to violate
every tenet of applicable Rule of Law (Constitution, Statutes and case laws)
and repeatedly commit crimes against its own members all for greed for more
money and more power. I want to see (a) whether any of these defamed
parties will threaten to sue; and (b) what their clever lawyers will seek to
6 Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
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claim is the defamatory meaning of my statement. 7 Is the Chairman and
MD, AWHO listening?
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7 http://www.indiankanoon.org/doc/1408202/
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