Minutes of
Proceedings of 17th Annual General Meeting
held on
31.08.2014 at Society’s Community Hall
In terms of the Notice dated 7th August, 2014
issued by Sri Kushal Roy, Secretary, Happy Nook Co-operative Housing Society
Ltd., the Annual General Meeting of the Society commenced at 5.15 P.M on
31.08.2014 at the Society premises with Shri Bimal Kumar Ghosh as Chairman of
the meeting.
Members Present: 96 ( Ninety Six)
The Chairman called the Meeting to order.
At the outset, the Chairman requested the members to observe
one minute silence to show respect to the departed souls of late H.K.Dutta (A-9
/ 7), late Ananta Kumar Majumdar (A- 6/ 10), late Saswata Majumdar (A- 4 / 4)
& late Chitralekha Kar (A-3 / 8) when the members stood in silence.
The Chairman then requested the Secretary to read out the
Notice dated 7th August,
2014 of the 17th
Annual General Meeting for Convening the meeting which was done.
Being requested by the Chairman, the Secretary initiated
discussion Agenda wise.
Agenda No: 01
Confirmation of the Proceedings of the Last Half-
Yearly General Meeting
Held on 27.01.2013
Secretary read out the minutes of the last Half-Yearly
General Meeting held on
27.01.2013 which was duly circulated earlier. Members were
requested to
deliberate on any point to be included or omitted. Nobody
raised any further
point and the minutes of the last Half-Yearly General
Meeting were confirmed
unanimously which was proposed by Shri Pijush Basu (A-5/14)
and seconded
by Shri. Hirak Ghosh (A-5/15).
Agenda No: 02
Secretary’s Report
Smt. Jharna Ganguly ( A-5/2) drew the Member’s attention to
Point No. 8 of
the subject report.
Her observations were as under :
a) She said that the election process which was initiated by
the Co-operative
Election Commission was cancelled through a notice issued by
the then
Secretary as because an Ordinance had come up extending the
life of all Board
of the Co-operative Societies from three years to five years
following Hon’ble
Justice Samaddar’ s order.
b) The fact that the then Board was dissolved and a Special
Officer was appointed by the Assistant Secretary to the Govt. of West Bengal
was again because of the fact that another Ordinance was promulgated which
again reduced the life of the Board of the Co-operative Societies from five
years to three years.
c) The Secretary’s Report, which says that the Accounts for
the year 2012-13 were not prepared and audited tends to suggest that it was a
not done by the previous Board out of negligence / deliberately.
The fact remains that since the earlier Board was dissolved
all of a sudden in February 2013 they were not in a position to complete the
Accounts for the year 2012-13 and thereby get same audited.
As per her all these facts should get reflected in the
Secretary’s Report .
The Secretary replied that since the Notice for election was
issued by the Co-
operative Election Commission the notice for any
cancellation of such election
notified earlier needed to be issued by the Election
Commission only and the
Secretary had no right to issue such a Notice of
cancellation.
He also replied that why Smt. Ganguly is assuming that the
simple statement that the Accounts for the year 2012-13 were not prepared and
audited was suggestive in nature hinting at negligence of the previous Board.
It is a known fact that the Accounts are prepared at the end of a particular
financial year only and in this instance the erstwhile Board was not in a
position to do so since they had to leave office all of a sudden in Feb 2014.
The Secretary said that the facts stated by Smt. Ganguly
in serial number (a) and (b) and (c – 2nd para) above have been
noted and should be read in conjunction with the Secretary’s Report already
circulated.
Mr.Pratul Roy Chowdhury ( A-9/8) wanted to know whether the
rate that has been agreed upon with the new Security Service provider is
inclusive of Service Tax and if so then he wondered how he is able to manage
after paying Rs.5,500/- to the Security Guards as the balance left is almost
equivalent to the Service Tax amount that he would need to pay to the Tax
authorities. He told the Board to look into this to avoid any problem /
liability later on.
Mr. Amit Banerjee ( A – 2/ 12) said that the onus is on the
Service Provider to pay the Service Tax and not on the Service Receiver.
After these deliberations the Secretary’s Report was passed
unanimously.
Proposed by : Shri. P.B. Sinha (A-9/14), Seconded by :
Group. Capt. S.B. Majumdar
( Retd.) ( A-11/8)
Agenda No. 03.
Approval of the Audited Accounts for the year 2012-13 & 2013-14
Mr. Pratul Roy Chowdhury wanted to know as to why the Car
rental Charges got reduced in the year 2013-14. The Secretary replied that the
number of tenants having car had come down during the year 2013-14 and hence
the reduction in collection.
Mr.Pratul Roy Chowdhury also expressed his concern at the
amount of “Receivables” from the Members being quite high and wanted to know as
to what steps the Board is taking to recover the Receivables. He also suggested
that the name of the defaulters be displayed in the Notice Board. The Secretary
said that traditionally all the Boards so far had dealt with the defaulters
rather softly. He stated that some time be given to the Board to pursue with
the defaulting members and get the dues recovered and if the situation still
does not improve then a decision could be taken in the next Half yearly General
Meeting
to put the names of the defaulting Members in the Notice
Board.
Mr. Subir Das ( A-1/4) suggested that instead of putting the
names at least the Membership numbers be put in the Notice Board.
Mr. Benudhar Munshi ( A- 5/8) made several observations on
the way the Accounts have been presented for the year 2012-13 and 2013-14. . He
stated that his comments / observations are not to be treated as a complaint.
Some of the salient points he observed are as under :
a) The fact that one FD was prematurely broken by the
Special Officer to run the
Society’s expense since no maintenance charges have been
collected from some defaulting members during the last two years should
have been mentioned in the FD list.
b) The Admission Fee collected for three new Members should
have been mentioned.
c) Printing mistakes should not be there in Audited Accounts
d) Accounting formats / policies should not be changed and
if so done then approval should be taken for same in the AGM
e) The Accounting Heads should not be changed since it makes
comparisons difficult with previous years.
Finally, after threadbare discussions, the Audit Report and
Audited Statement of Accounts for the year 2012-2013 & 2013-2014 were
unanimously accepted
which was proposed by Shri. Hirak Ghosh ( A – 5/15) and
seconded by Shri Arun Kumar Saha ( A-4/ 11)
Agenda No: 04
Approval of Budget for the year 2014 –15
Mr.Pratul Roy Chowdhury referred to the Budget Sheet (
Annexure –C of the AGM Notice) and pointed out some anomaly under the item head
“Salary & Wages” and he wondered how could the salary and wages figure jump
from previous year’s Rs. 3,0229 lakhs to Rs. 4.50 lakhs. Apparently what he was
saying seemed to be correct but later on, on careful examination it has been
found that by inadvertent mistake he was referring to Row No. 4 ( which
is the Account Head of Security Charges ) and comparing against last years’
figures instead of comparing the figures in Row No. 5 ( which is the Account
Head for Salary & Wages) of the Budget sheet ( Annexure –C of the AGM
Notice Dt. 7thOf August 2014 circulated to all the Members). If Row No.
5 is minutely read then it would be seen that the “Salary & Wages”
budgetary figure for the year 2014-15 is Rs.3.30 lakhs only and
not 4.50 lakhs as inadvertently claimed by Mr. Pratul Roy Chowdhury as against
previous year’s Rs. 2.8665 lakhs which is an increase of about 15 %. ( We would
request all the Members to kindly go through Annexure C ( Page 32) of the AGM
Notice Dt. 07.08.14 to understand and appreciate as to what we are
trying to explain.)
The increase in Row No. 4 i.e. under the Head Security
Charges is indeed Rs.4.50 lakhs from Rs. 3.0229 lakhs but that is because the
rate per security person per month has gone up to Rs. 6,200/- from Rs
4,900/-.and the number of Security personnel too have been increased to six
persons from five persons leading to a percentage increase of about 49%. All
the Members present in the House including the Board of Directors got
inadvertently mislead by this unintentional error of mixing up the Rows in the
Budget Sheet ( Annexure – C ). Inconvenience caused is regretted.
Mr. Debashish Das (A-6/7 ) insisted that the item head of
“Legal Expenses” be removed from the Budget and the budget be recast
accordingly. However the Secretary reminded him that even though there had been
a precedence created by one of the earlier Boards to fight a court case without
taking any money from the Society, the previous Board, of which the erstwhile
Secretary - who is a member of the present Board also and in which Mr. Das too
was a Member, had set a precedence of fighting Court cases using Society’s
money and thus it was not fair and logical on his part to insist for dropping
this item from the Budgetary provision. The Secretary also assured the members
that it is just a provision and if there is no such need the entire amount will
remain intact as it is.
Mr.Smarajit Sen wanted to know as to why the budgetary
provision for gardening has been kept so high as he does not see much gardening
being done. To this the Chairman replied that under the gardening head the
salary of Raghu is included which in itself is working out to Rs. 61,295/- and
another temporary gardener is also employed from time to time whose wages too
come under this head only.
Mr.Subir Das stated that the increase in the Plumbing head
when compared to last year seemed to be high. The Chairman explained that
during the time of the Special Officer except for very routine maintenance job
not much plumbing job had been undertaken and now lot of valves etc. are being
replaced which are very costly and hence this apparent jump in the figure.
After detailed deliberation, Annual Budget & Programme
of Activities for 2014-2015 were unanimously approved which was proposed by
Shri. Sadiquzzaman ( A-8/14) and seconded by Shri. P.B. Sinha (A 9/14).
Agenda Point No. 5
Annual Maintenance Charges on the Members for the year
2014-15
Mr. Debashish Das said that the amount of Maintenance charge
which has been suggested being more than five thousand rupees per year will
create hardship for retired persons. To this Mrs. Sulagna Dawn ( A-8/8) replied
that the maintenance charge being charged in Happy Nook is one of the lowest
amongst all the Housing Societies and in one of the Housing Society which she
knows the monthly maintenance charge is more than 5000 /- per month itself.
We would once again like to draw your kind attention to
the statement of facts of unintentional mixing up of rows in the Budget sheet (
Annexure C) as explained above under Agenda Point No. 4.
On this apparent mistaken figure of Salary & Wages
being considered as Rs. 4.50 lakhs ( due to intermixing of errorful reading of
a Row in the Budget Sheet – Annexure C of the AGM Notice dt.7th
August 2014 ) and being subsequently corrected to 3.30 lakhs , which the house
overlooked as well, a reduction of
Rs. 675.00 per member per year from the Budgeted
Maintenance fee amount of Rs.5850.00 was calculated and the Revised Maintenance
Charges per member per year was fixed as Rs. 5175.00 which was accepted by the
House.
Even though this reduction was uncalled for as found out
on scrutiny later but since this figure has been accepted already by the House,
Maintenance Charges would remain as Rs.5,175.00 per year per member for the
Cooperative year 2014-15 and not Rs.5850/-.
“Resolved that Annual Maintenance Charge of Rs. 5175.00
for the year 2014-15 with effect from 01.04.2014 be paid by Members either one
time within 30th September , 2014 or in two instalments of Rs.
3,000.00 by 30th September, 2014 & Rs. 2,175.00 by 30th
November, 2014 and interest @ 2% per month would be payable for delayed
payment”.
Agenda No: 06
Court Cases and related issues - Lift
Sri Hirak Ghosh (flat A
5/15) stated that the issue of installation of lift has attained finality by
virtue of different solemn orders passed by the Hon’ble High Court and steps taken by KMC. He also referred to
photographs of premises situated at Golf Green which were built and constructed
by West Bengal Housing Board like our complex and informed that construction
for installation of lifts have started there already. He also stated that
Contempt Rule in WPCRC in 354 (W) of 2012 is pending against Sri Biswatosh
Sarkar in the Hon’ble High Court and he has already submitted on affidavit as
Secretary ( Chief Executive) of the society ,tantamounting to the stand of
Board of Directors that he has no objection to the installation of the lifts.
Shri Hirak Ghosh further said that the current Board has
been elected with the
mandate of installing the lift in all the eleven buildings
and it is imperative the
Board fulfils the aspiration of the majority Members who are
willing to have the
lifts installed.
He thus concluded that the present Board of Directors be
entrusted by the
General Body members by majority decision to proceed with
the construction of
the lifts in accordance with the solemn orders passed by the
Hon’ble High Court
from time to time. He further states that the inconvenience
caused by absence of
lifts must be cured and solved by installing lifts at an
early date.
Mr. Arun Kumar Saha ( A-4/11 ) lamented that he has lost his
mother recently
and regrets the fact that he could not bring his mother to
his flat even for a single day since she was not in a position to climb the
stairs. He made a fervent appeal to all those Members opposing the proposal of
installation of lift to co-operate on humanitarian grounds at least.
The house then took the following resolution which was
passed by show of
hands :
Resolved that the General body of members authorise the
Board of Directors to do all acts and deeds necessary to get lifts installed,
operational and maintained in all 11 blocks of the Society, including getting
approval from KMC and all statutory authorities in accordance with the orders
of the Hon'ble High Court, Calcutta
Show of hands :
In Favour of the above Resolution - 52.
Against the above Resolution - 16
Agenda No: 07
Change of the old Barbed Wire fencing
The Chairman informed the House that the barbed wire fencing
is in a very bad shape having got absolutely rusted and brittle. He told the
House that the approximate
contribution per Member for taking up the installation of
new barbed wire fencing would work out to about Rs.1000/.
The House felt that it was necessary to replace the Barbed
wire fencing and it was resolved that the proposal would be formally brought as
an agenda point in the next Half Yearly General Body meeting giving cost
estimate break up etc. for the consideration of the House.
Proposed By : Mr.Pijush Basu ( A-5/14), Seconded by : Mr.
Hirak Ghosh (A-5/15)
Agenda No: 08
Community Hall Development:
The House unanimously felt that the Community Hall need to
be developed for the benefit of the Members. The Secretary called for
suggestions from the Members and said that once the suggestions have been
received it would be kept as an Agenda Point in the coming Half Yearly General
Body meeting and taken forward.
Proposed by : Mr. Goutam Banerjee (A-6/14), Seconded by :
Mrs. Sulagna Dawn (A-8/8)
Agenda No. 09
Installation of Lightning Arrestors
The Chairman said that in view of many electrical gadgets
having gone out of order in many flats in the campus due to lightning it was
felt necessary that Lightning Arrestors should be installed in the eleven
buildings of the Society.
The House agreed to explore this proposal in the coming Half
Yearly General
Body meeting and to take the proposal forward.
Proposed by : Lt.Conl A.K.Roy Chowdhury ( Retd.)
(A-11/16), Seconded by : Smt. Ruby Banerjee (A-3/16)
Agenda Point No.10
Appointment of Internal Auditor for 2014-15.
The Chairman thanked Shri Benudhar Munshi ( A-5/8) for the
mentorship role that he had been playing by giving valuable inputs with respect
to Account Statements and Balance Sheet being prepared by the Society. He then
requested him to be the Internal Auditor for the year 2014-15 to which the
House unanimously agreed. Mr. Munshi was kind enough to give his consent to
this proposal.
The House thus approved the appointment of Shri Benudhar
Munshi (A-5/8) as
Internal Auditor for 2014-15 with his consent and the
following Resolution was
adopted:
“Resolved that Shri Benudhar Munshi (A-5/8) be appointed
as Internal Auditor of the Society for 2014-15. ”
Proposed by : Group. Capt. S.B.Majumdar ( Retd.) (A-11/8),
Seconded by : Shri. P.B.Sinha (A-9/14)
Agenda No. 11
Consideration of any other matter which may forwarded
in accordance
with Bye Laws with the approval of Chairman
a) Mrs. Kalyani Dutta ( A-10/6 ) said that the installation
of lift should be through consensus. She said that there are some newcomers in
the Society who may not be knowing the background of many an issue. This
statement was objected to by Mr. Debdatta Purakayastha (A-4/3), Mr. Goutam
Banerjee (A-6/14) and Mrs. Sulagna Dawn
( A-8/8). They said that just being new Members does not
imply that they are not aware of the systems, practices, rules prevailing in
the Society.
b) Mr. Keshab Bhattacharjee ( A – 7/5) said that the court
verdict is clear and it implies that only those Members who had filed the writ
petition can install the lift. He also stated that one cannot interpret the
Court Orders in one’s own way. In reply to his claim the Chairman read out the
excerpts from the Order passed by Hon’ble Justice Shri. Ashoke Kumar Das
Adhikary – ’’ in my view, the concerned Applicants as well as the persons who
are willing to instal the lift in the co-operative Society should be allowed to
instal such lift’’ which Mr.Bhattacharjee had not mentioned during the
deliberations. Mr.
Sadiquzzaman said that one should not carry the impression
that others do not have any knowledge of law and did not have the intelligence
to understand the Court Verdict.
c ) Mr. Sadiquzzaman said that there had been numerous
instances where inner walls have been dismantled in many Flats. In fact outer
walls of two adjacent flats have been dismantled between in the same building.
If those dismantling did not cause any structural damages to the building then
why is the rumour being spread by a few of the Members that if lifts are
installed then the building will get damaged structurally and collapse.
While on this issue he wanted to know that when the outer
wall between two
adjacent flats (Flat 4/1 and 4/2) in Building Number 4 in
the Ground Floor had
been dismantled whether any permission had been taken by the
flat owners from
KMC and if not how could the then Board allow such thing to
happen.
He also mentioned that it had come to his attention that the
Kolkata Municipal
Corporation's ( KMC ) order and other supporting papers
based on which the
previous Board had allowed Mr Arunava Maitra ( A - 4 / 1 )
to dismantle the
walls between A - 4 / 1 and A - 4 / 2 ( belonging to his son
Mr Aranoyk Maitra)
to make it a single
unit is missing from the Society Office . Mr Sadiquzzaman
repeatedly insisted that he thinks that this has been done
deliberately by
somebody to suppress the genuinity of the order and since
KMC's order is a
public document missing from the Society's Office - it is a
must that present Board should immediately file an FIR in the Anandapur P.S.
with a request to investigate and find the culprit for bringing them to
justice.
The above proposal was supported by Mr P.B.Sinha ( A - 9 /
14 ). He wanted to
know if the current Board was trying to save somebody.
The Chairman informed the members that the Board has already
constituted an one man enquiry committee comprising of Mr Hirak Ghosh ( A - 5 /
15 ) to enquire about the above case. Mr Hirak Ghosh has already started
enquiring about the case. Board will take appropriate action on Shri.
Sadiquzzaman’s proposal as supported by Shri. P.B.Sinha as deemed fit after
receipt and taking into consideration enquiry report of Mr Hirak Ghosh.
For the information of the Members the Secretary informed
that going through the old records it looked like that the purported Original
Stability Certificate issued by the KMC Empanelled Structural Engineer and all
other papers in original were never submitted to the Board. He also added that
it is rather surprising that the Member does not have any copies of such
important papers that he had supposedly submitted to the earlier Board. The
secretary also wondered whether the earlier Board inspected after the removal
of the walls and it conformed to the permission given.
d ) The Chairman informed that Mr. P.K.Guha Biswas ( A-5/3)
had submitted a letter highlighting the necessity of having a fire fighting
system in place in the campus. He then invited Mr.Guha Biswas to come and speak
on the subject. Mr.Guha Biswas again highlighted the importance of having at
least a minimum fire fighting arrangement in place. The Chairman informed the
House that already quotations have been obtained from different sources for
Fire Extinguishers and they are under study. He also mentioned that cost of
maintaining the fire extinguishers will be quite substantial. It was decided
that
the matter would be discussed in greater details and Mr.Guha
Biswas’s help will be solicited in this regard.
e ) Ms.Shampa Basu mentioned about the hardship being faced
especially by the residents of Building No. 1 and 2 because of water logging in
the common area between the two buildings in the event of a smart shower even
for a very short period of time. While she acknowledged the fact that the root
cause of the problem are the perennial clogging of the external drains outside
our campus because of the unauthorised pavement encroachment and the level of
the external drain being higher than our internal drain, she appealed that some
short term solution be found out so that they can at least come out of the
building without having to wade through ankle deep water. She suggested that
bricks be laid or some wooden bench / ramp sort of a thing be placed leading to
the entry
point of the building. Mr. Siddhartha Roy Chowdhury (A-2/1)
suggested that a provision be made where the rain water could be pumped into a
well and the water be utilised later on some other purpose. The points were
well noted.
f ) Mr. Debdatta Purakayastha also reiterated the fact that
the area near the rear exit gate of the building where the Meter Boxes are
located especially in Building Number 4 is getting waterlogged and this could
pose a great danger leading to short circuit etc.
He also requested that the rear portion of the buildings be
always kept neat and clean so that snakes, rodents etc. do not get an
opportunity to thrive.
Mr.Siddhartha Roy
Chowdhury added that carbolic acid be spread around the campus on a regular
basis.
Chairman thanked all the members and declared the end of the
meeting.
(Kushal Roy)
(Bimal Kumar Ghosh)
Secretary Chairman
03.09.2014
03.09.2014
