PNS | DEHRADUN
Congress leader and former chairman of the district cooperative bank Dehradun, KS Rana has accused the State government for deliberately delaying the elections of the cooperative bodies in the State. Interacting with the mediapersons at headquarters of the State Congress on Wednesday, Rana said that the government dithered on holding the elections following which the High Court ordered it to hold the elections. He said that ahead of the elections of the representatives of the cooperative committees, the government debarred about 90 per cent of the old members from casting the votes in the election in the name of adopting a new method of election. Rana said that on the petition of some members, the HC had directed the government to follow the old method of election but it paid no heed to the order and conducted the elections of representatives held on February 24 as per the new method.
He said that the elections of the chairpersons of the cooperative committees scheduled on February 25 but these elections were withheld without assigning any reason. Rana said that the section 17 of Cooperative committees act clearly mentions that once set in motion, the process of election in cooperative bodies cannot be withheld. He said that the government first declared on November 6 last year that the elections will be held on November 21 and 22 but later postponed the date to December 16 and 17. The elections were not held on this date also and a new schedule (February 24 and 25) was declared on February 11. He said that the Cooperatives minister Dhan Singh Rawat is directly intervening in the election process.
Congress leaders Virendra Pokhariyal, Manvendra Singh, Garima Dasauni, Sujata Paul and Pratibha Singh attended the press conference.
