Ending the supremacy of former MLA from Congress Party K Sivadasan Nair, Bharatiya Janata Party senior leader Dollar Kotecha has been elected unopposed as the new Chairman of the apex body-National Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks Federation (NCARDB).
The election for the lone post of Chairman was held on Monday at the board room of National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) at Delhi.
Kotecha is representing Gujarat State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank, popularly known as Kheti Bank and had recently grabbed the media headlines when Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah addressed its AGM through video conferencing.
The post of Chairman was vacant, due to the change in the management of Kerala State Cooperative Agricultural & Rural Development Bank Ltd, from which Nair was representing on the board of NCARDB.
Kotecha has been elected as the Chairman of NCARDB till the next election of the board of directors, which is supposed to be held in July 2023.
As soon as his name was announced as the new Chairman, his followers and others including Kribhco Chairman Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav and Nafed Chairman Bijendra Singh, who were present on the occasion, lost no time in extending warm greetings to him.
Meanwhile, social media is also flooded with congratulatory messages. Kotecha’s brother Girish Kotecha wrote, “Heartiest congratulations and best wishes to my elder brother and Gujarat BJP co-operative leader Shri Dollar Kotecha for becoming Chairman of NCARDB.”
There are 16 State Cooperative Agriculture & Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs) of which only 13 are fully functional with a network of 1,737 PCARDBs/branches at the ground level. These banks have a membership base of more than 88 lakh.
The total loans and borrowings outstanding of these banks as of 31.03.2021 were Rs 20,926 crore and Rs 12,893 crore respectively. As of 31st March 2021, the total deposits of these SCARDBs stood at Rs 2,238 crore. NCARDB has its headquarters at Navi Mumbai.