On August 6, the 1,68,000 members of Saraswat Bank will vote for 16 new Board members at 200 polling stations across the country and will be monitored by an independent Returning Officer Mr H P Gemini. Out of these 16 members, 10 are from Mumbai, 4 from the rest of the state and 2 from rest of India.

The chances of incumbent Chairman’s Mr Eknath Thakur’s reelection is said to be bright as it during his tenure the bank has beaten the all powerful Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) to emerge as number one in terms of turn over.

Bank, which has grown its balance sheet size by nearly six times and has achieved a total business level of over Rs 28,000 crore in the past 10 years has become India’s largest Urban Co-operative Bank.

Saraswat Bank was established in 1918 and  has consistently earned ‘A’ class for 93 years and has been a profit-making and dividend-paying Bank since its existence.

The 226 odd branches of the Bank are spread over six states – Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has now given a green signal to Saraswat Bank to extend its area of operation from the present six states to the entire country, making it a All-India Bank.

Watch these lines as we bring to you details of political maneuvering as the D day inches close. Elections are unpredictable and election in cooperatives are notorious for back room manipulations. Our representatives have  spread around to bring to you the  real picture.

State-owned trading firm MMTC on Friday invited bids for the import of 5,040 tonnes of urea for industrial use.

The last date for submission of bids is August 3 and a decision on awarding the contract would be taken on the same day, the company said in a notice on its website.

According to MMTC, 4,340 tonnes of urea is to be delivered at Nava Sheva (Mumbai), 300 tonnes at ICD Tughlakabad and 100 tonnes each at the Kandla (Gujarat), Mundra (Gujarat), Kolkata and Chennai ports.

The shipment period of the technical grade urea is between August and September 15, 2011, it added.

Technical grade urea is used in the production of glue and is also used extensively in the particle board industry. It is also used to produce coatings for metal, paper, textile

and leather finishing.

Haryana vigilance bureau has arrested a cooperative official on Thursday.

Bal Kishan Verma, an inspector in Cooperative Society, Shahbad has been caught by the bureau.

Mr Verma was  allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 3,000 from a resident of Gumti village, in Kurukshetra district.

Cases had been registered against the accused under Prevention of Corruption Act, he added.

Cooperative Minister Gauri Shankar Bishen of Madhya Pradesh hogs headline every now and then. He got a patwari do sit-ups publicly when people complained against him.

The matter relates to Chimda village in Sivani district of the State. Cooperative Minister had gone to the village on Wednesday to attend some function. People complained against Patwari to him.

Minister got angry and called the patwari to do sit-ups. Patwari hesitated in the beginning but after Bishen went furious, he began doing sit-ups.

Minister is known for his unconventional ways. He had openly talked against the Public Distribution System leading the government to embarrassing situation.

Father of Operation Flood, Dr V Kurien was presented with Milma Award. This award was instituted in the memory of Nandiyode B Rajan who was the founding Chairman of Thiruvananthapuram Regional Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd of Milma.

Present Chairman Kallada Ramesh  handed over the award to aging Kurian at his residence in Anand.

Kurian is credited with taking Amul to dizzy heights. But is said to have become a target of diary cooperative politics and had to force quit when Board Members of GCMMF rebelled against him.

A strong votary of cooperative movement, Kurian fought governmental interference in cooperative matters till he was active. But he did not know that cooperative politics would, ultimately be used to dump him.

Government Servants Cooperative House Building Society in N Delhi has been advised by the Delhi State Consumer Commission to approach civil court for remedy.

Government Servants Cooperative House Building Society is fighting case against Syndicate Bank officials. The bank officials are charged with fund misappropriation

“This forum is not meant for complex cases involving diverse and difficult issues of liability and examination of hundreds of documents. Therefore, complainant needs to knock at the doors of the civil court so that full and thorough examination of the issues involved may be made, and a proper judgment may be arrived at,” the state commission said.

“Evidence and cross examination of witnesses will be necessary in a case like this to determine actual liability and that can best be done by a regular court,” it said.

Election in Udaypur Malila Sahkari Bank in Rajasthan on Tuesday  turned out stormy. The Board of Bank was controlled by Bhartiya Janata Party. But in Tuesday election BJP divided into two camps with former District President of Party Tara Chand Jain advocating the candidature of his relative. He was opposed by former Home Minister Mr Gulab Chand Kataria who wanted his candidate to be elected. The matter took an ugly turn. Fed up with the fight BJP high Command was forced to suspend four leaders from the Party fold.

Housing Cooperative societies were in for a major shock in Noida in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday when Supreme Court ordered individual registration for every owner as per the present circle rates.

The entire concept of cooperative societies goes for a spin if you are not getting benefit of community living. Several housing cooperative societies are hit by this decisions with the flat owners now obliged to pay anything from one lakh to 6 lakh, according to an estimate.

Flat owners have to  get individual registration of flats within the six months, ordered the Apex Court

Noida Co-operative society flat owners had approached the apex court to get some relief but the court rejected their plea.

The Uttar Pradesh Housing and Development Board (UPHDB) had issued a notice to these societies to furnish proper reports till July 23.

Registration amount would vary from area to area as circle rate of posh colonies are higher than that of not so posh areas.

India, the world’s second-largest sugar producer and largest consumer, may decide

on allowing more sugar exports after September, Food Minister K V Thomas said on Tuesday.

“We are not in a hurry at all (for more sugar exports) as global prices are likely to remain steady until January,” Thomas told reporters in N Delhi.

The country is likely to have 5.9-6 million tonnes of stocks at the start of the next sugar season, beginning October 1, which will be sufficient to meet peak festival season demand, he said.

Thomas also said the government may consider allowing additional sugar exports after September when the current sugar year comes to an end.

Yesterday, cooperative sugar factories body National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) had sought the government’s permission for an extra 500,000 tonnes of sugar exports to cash in on high global prices.

The sugar year runs from October to September.

The government has so far allowed 2.2 million tonnes of sugar exports this sugar year, out of which 1 million tones was allowed under Open General Licences.

Sugar exports have been permitted as domestic output is exceeding demand. India’s sugar production in the 2010-11 sugar year is expected at 24.5 million tonnes, while demand is

likely to remain at 22-22.5 million tonnes.

Junior Inspectors post are lying vacant which are 93 in number in various cooperative departments in the state of Tamil Nadu. Registrar of Cooperative is being blamed for lack of filling up the post.

The High Court had ordered the Registrar to take candidates from PSC rank holders. But the Registrar has filed a review petition in which it is quoting earlier governmentt rule of filling the posts not only from PSC list but also from transfer and promotion of staff.

The eligible candidates see in this ploy a conspiracy to deny them their rights as 31^st August deadline would make the PSC list redundant.

Earlier, the High Court had asked it to go ahead with PSC list if there are no eligible candidates from other sources. But Registrar office said that there are eight eligible candidates from transfer. PSC rank holders argue that still 85 post are there for us and Registrar should go ahead appointing us.