Madhya Pradesh government led by Shivraj Singh Chauhan has geared up for conducting the elections in Primary Agriculture Credit Cooperative Societies (PACCs). There are more than 4500 PACCs in the state and 55 lakh farmers are associated with these societies.
The election may be conducted in the month of May. A few days back, the state government appointed Retired IAS MB Ojha as the in-charge of Madhya Pradesh State Co-operative Election Authority.
Talking to Journalists, State Cooperative Minister Arvind Singh Bhadauria said, “Since long the elections of PACCs, 38 DCCBs, and apex bank are pending and we are going to start the election process in these co-ops. The elections of Housing, dairy and other co-ops will also be conducted sooner than later”.
Criticizing the former Kamal Nath government, he said in 2018 congress government had superseded the board of many co-ops and recently an order has come from the High Court against the arbitrarily move of the Kamal Nath government. The court has found that superseding the board of co-ops was an undemocratic move, he added.
The process of elections will be started after finalizing the list of members. It is being said that for the past ten years co-ops of the state have not gone to polls and in many societies, officials of cooperative departments have been appointed as administrators for overseeing the day-to-day activities.
One of the officials associated with the cooperative department said, after the formation of the Board of Directors of the primary level societies, the elections of District Co-operative Central Banks and MP State Co-operative Bank will be held.
It bears recall that in the past, Congress government had superseded the board of the DCCBs and others co-ops and had appointed dissident Congress leaders as administrators in these banks. It bears recall that Bhopal District Cooperative Bank Chairman Santosh Meena and others had filed a petition against the arbitrarily move of the Kamalnath Government.
Meanwhile, commenting on this subject, congress leaders are connecting the announcement of polls with the upcoming urban local bodies and panchayat elections. “The state government is planning to win these elections with the help of co-ops which are not only having strong roots at village level but also at the state level.
Earlier, the state government had increased the budget for cooperatives from Rs 1425 crore (2021-22) to Rs 1960 crore (2022-23).
