The BJP on Tuesday decried the State Cabinet’s decision to defer the ensuing elections for the Cooperative Societies by another year and said that the decision has once again exposed the ill intent of the Government.
The decision to postpone the elections for 12 long months would seriously hamper the functioning of the societies which, in turn, would hit the farmers’ interest very hard, said BJP State spokesperson Sajjan Sharma.
The decision is a blatant attempt to wrap the failures of the Naveen Government and to avoid the widespread public anger against the corruption in the co-op societies by the cohorts of the BJD government who are functioning as the office bearers of the societies, Sharma alleged.
“The Government has brought an amendment to the Odisha Cooperative Societies Act, 1962 for its conformity with the 97th Amendment Act, 2011. As per the amendments, elections to all the cooperative societies should be held within a period of six months. However, the period expired on July 31, but Government so far has failed to comply with the Ordinance.
Here the role of multi-crore chit fund scam cannot be ruled out as most of them functioned under the veil of cooperative societies,” said Sharma.
Besides, the outcome of the elections, if held, would have affected the poll prospects of the BJD Government adversely. So, the Government decided to defer the elections, alleged Sharma.