G. Nanjanagouda has been elected unopposed as the President of Karnataka State Souharda Federal Cooperative (KSSFCL) with his deputy A. R. Prasanna Kumar, in an election held on Thursday at the federation headquarters located in Bangalore.
Nanjanagouda has replaced B H Krishna Reddy who was seeking another term as the President. Kumar has replaced Jagadish Kavatagimat.
The newly elected Chairman has been on the cooperative’s board for the last two consecutive terms but as the chairman it will be his first term. It is the Sahakar Bharati leaders who decided about the names for top positions in the organization, informed sources confide.
It is said that the name of the well-known cooperator Gurunath Janthikar and the outgoing Vice-Chairman Jagadish Kavatagimat was in the discussion for the top post but at the last moment it was changed.
Talking to Indian Cooperative the newly elected Chairman Nanjangouda said, “I am very thankful to our board members as well as Sahakar Bharati leaders for giving me a big responsibility and I am sure that I will meet their expectations. We will together focus on taking the Souharda Cooperative Movement to newer heights”, he said.
“We will focus on giving high quality training to our members for bringing a professional approach. There are several issues related to Souharda Co-ops which are to be resolved and we will take up these issues with the higher authorities”, he added on the phone.
Readers would recall that in the recently held elections of board directors of KSSFCL, the panel led by Sahakar Bharati leaders grabbed 20 seats out of 21 and one seat was won by an independent candidate.
In this election of board members, G. Nanjanagouda fought from the Kalaburagi division and got 373 votes, whereas A. R. Prasanna Kumar (Bangalore division) received 416 votes.
According to the data released by the apex body, the deposits and loan base of these souharda societies were Rs 18,004 crore and Rs 14,343 crore till 31st March 2019 respectively. But by 31st March 2022, it has risen to Rs 27,352 crore (Deposits) and Rs 20,596 crore (Loans).
Besides, the profits of these societies have increased to Rs 264 crore (31st March 2019) to Rs 365 crore (31st March 2022). The reserves rose from Rs 1886 crore to Rs 2,270 crore. As of 31st March 2019, there were 1240 e-stamping centers but now there are 1505, the official statement says.
Souharda is a novel concept being experimented in Karnataka, wherein co-ops are governed by a separate Souharda Act. It has been a successful experiment so far.