The well-known face in cooperative circles Mahendra Kumar Nayak has been re-elected unopposed as the President of Odisha Urban Cooperative Banks and Credit Societies Federation, in an election held on Thursday.
The election in the federation has been held after a gap of over three years because the last election was organized in 2015 and after the completion of the five years term of the board of directors in 2022, the state government had appointed the Registrar of Cooperative Societies to oversee its activities.
It is gathered that in Odisha, the elections of Chairman and Vice-Chairman are not held together as the Act does not permit it. It means the Vice-Chairman’s election will be held in 15 days.
In the election of Chairman, Guruprasad from Kendrapara Urban Cooperative Bank and Pramod Kumar Sahu from Kendrapara Credit Cooperative Society filed their nomination papers but later on withdrew their names.
“I was also on the board of Nafed and Anand based National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India (NCDFI). I was the Director of Odisha State Co-op. Bank for three terms. I have been associated with the cooperative movement for more than 45 years”, said Nayak who by profession is an advocate.
Later on, Nayak met Odisha Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and took his blessings.
It is worth mentioning that he had been awarded the Sahakarita Siromani Award presented by KRIBHCO, New Delhi.
It bears recalling that the federation board consists of 21 directors and only one seat is vacant, the remaining 20 directors were elected unopposed. In the newly elected board 15 are new ones and the rest are old hands.
There are nine urban cooperative banks and more than 30 credit cooperative societies in Odisha.