Kribhco escaped by a whisker while NCUI got entrapped by a new notification issued by the Central Registrar of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare) last week on the issue of appointment of Returning officer in the elections of the multi state co-operative bodies.
While Kribhco is in the last leg of its long-drawn election process of choosing a new Board (7th January 2020), NCUI has yet to decide on the date and name of Returning Officer for the upcoming elections scheduled for February 2020.
The notification makes it compulsory for a multistate co-op society going for elections to choose a Returning Officer from the approved panel of names decided upon by the Central Registrar, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
Published in the Gazette of India, the notification dated 2nd December reads “In exercise of the powers conferred by section 124 of the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002), the Central Government makes the following rules to further amend the MSCS 2002, namely:
- (a) These rules are abbreviated as MSCS (Amendment) Rules 2019.
(b) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Gazette.
- The following proviso shall be introduced in Rule 19 of the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Rules, 2002: “the Board shall appoint a Returning Officer from the panel of designated officials appointed by the Central Registrar.”
The notification says that this new provision is not applicable in cases in which the election process is underway and the name of Returning Officer has already been announced before the announcement of this notification.
This effectively means that the Kribhco election which is almost in the last leg of its completion would not be affected by this notification.
But NCUI’s current board of directors called Governing Council, which is also completing its tenure in February 2020 will have to select a Returning Officer from the Panel suggested by the Central Registrar. Informed sources say that NCUI has already written to the Central Registrar seeking the list of approved names, from which it has to choose one for the upcoming elections.
The Governing Council of NCUI is meeting on 26th December in which the dates and other details relating to the elections would be decided upon. This meeting is said to be the last one of the outgoing board. Sources also say that the names received from the Central Registrar would be discussed and finalized in this GC meeting.
Rumours doing the rounds are that when the new amendment act 2019 failed to be tabled in the House in the winter session, some BJP co-operators prevailed on the Ministry and got this notification issued. This was done primarily to monitor elections of NCUI, sources add.