The process to set up the Cooperative Election Authority and Cooperative Ombudsman has gained pace with the Ministry scheduling interviews of potential candidates on Tuesday.
The Union Ministry of Cooperation called a selection committee meeting on Tuesday in the chamber of Secretary for personal interaction with the candidates who have applied for the appointment to the post of Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and Members in Cooperative Election Authority and Cooperative Ombudsman.
According to the information received at the Indian Cooperative desk, 9 candidates for chairperson , 11 for Vice-Chairperson and 13-13 each for members, candidates for CEA and Cooperative Ombudsman have been called for personal interaction in different time slots.
Sources said that besides Ministry officials, Nafcub former CEO D Krishna and RBI Central Board Director Satish Marathe are members of the Selection Committee formed last year in August to select the right candidates.
It bears recall that the Ministry of Cooperation issued a vacancy circular for the appointment of a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and 3 Members (Statutory Posts) of Cooperative Election Authority (CEA) in August 2023.
Earlier, considering there are elections due in some of the multi state cooperative societies, the union Ministry of Cooperation constituted an interim cooperative election authority under the chairmanship of the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies.
The fairness of co-op elections has been a topic of debates for a long time. Many critics point out that the people who are in power manage to come back year after year through obliging the Returning Officer whom they choose themselves.
Earlier the 97th CAA and now the Multi State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2023 have provisions of setting up an Election Authority for neutral and fair conduct of co-operative elections. The current Election Authority is an interim one as the process of setting up a regular body is underway.
Readers may find it interesting to know that though the co-op movement is pretty weak in the state of Bihar, it was one of the few states which came up with the idea of Election Authority even before the idea could first be discussed in the 97th Constitutional Amendment.
