In a major relief to multi state co-op societies and banks, the Ministry of Cooperation has acceded to urban co-op banks’ demand and has amended its earlier Circular on the issue of appointment of Returning Officers for conducting Election of the Board of Directors of Multi-State Cooperative Societies and Banks.
A jubilant Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta thanked the Ministry and lauded it for being sensitive to the needs of co-op societies. “I am happy that we are being heard by the ministry led by Amitbhai”, said Mehta.
In the new Circular dated 7th July, Additional Secretary and Central Registrar Vijay Kumar says “A number of multi-State cooperative societies/Banks have raised issues regarding problems being faced in appointment of Returning Officers to conduct their election due to non-availability of serving officers.”
The Circular further reads “Therefore, Circular No. R-11017/52/2019-L&M dated 27.12.2019 issued by this office is hereby amended to the extent that Returning Officer can be appointed from a panel of serving or ex-officers who retired from the corresponding ranks up to the age of 65 years.”
Earlier, NAFCUB wrote a letter to the Ministry on the issue. The letter said “Elections of the Board of Directors of the Multi State Cooperative Societies and Banks-Appointment of Returning Officer A submission was made to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare on the captioned subject on 5th June 2020. We understand that since the formation of a separate Ministry for Cooperation, some issues taken up with the earlier ministry might not have got the attention of the new Ministry.”
“The submission is about including retired officials of the cooperative departments of states and those of Ministry of Agriculture (cooperative department) to be eligible to be appointed as returning officials for elections to Multistate Banks and Credit Societies as they are finding it difficult to identify serving Officers of the State Government as are specified in the order to conduct their elections”, read Nafcub letter.
It further added “Also, since many Multi State Urban Cooperative Banks are big in size with large membership and are scattered at different states, the process of election is very elaborate and long drawn out, getting Returning Officer who can devote his full time for Election is very difficult as serving Officers have their own limitations on account of other pressing commitments.”
“We would request you to kindly revisit the Ministry of Agriculture order No. R- 11017/52/2019 L&M wherein it is provided that the Board of all Multi State Cooperative Societies and Banks is required to appoint the Returning Officer (RO) for conducting of Elections from the panel of serving officers and include Retired Officers from the categories as specified who can be appointed as Returning Officer by Multi State Urban Cooperative Banks and Credit Societies. Since the issue is concerning elections to many large banks and is of utmost importance, we request you to kindly reconsider and modify your order at the earliest and oblige”, it concluded.