NCUI reshuffles its staff members; Setia shunted, Dey’s day begins

In a major reshuffle in the portfolios of NCUI officials, Ritesh Dey has been appointed as the personnel secretary to the apex body’s Chairman Dileep Sanghani. He replaces Ved Prakash Setia who had been secretary to the Chairman for more than one decade.

The reshuffle would have passed off normally but for the shifting of Ved Prakash Setia. The latter, an official who had migrated from NAFCUB has been close to both Bijender Singh and Chandra Pal Singh Yadav.

“Removing Setia must not have been easy for Sanghani as Setia must have counted on some cooperative heavyweights speaking up for him. But its good and Sanghaniji should have done it earlier”, said a Sahakar Bharati leader on condition of anonymity. The development amounts to Bijender Singh’s grip on the NCUI affairs relaxing, he added.

Talking to Indian Cooperative, NCUI President Dileep Sanghani pooh-poohed such talks and said that the reshuffle has been effected in a routine manner, following the principle of three-year tenure.

“Setia and others who were promoted earlier, needed to be shifted to a profile consistent with their posts; there is no need to read between the lines” Sanghani sounded dismissive.

Meanwhile, Setia himself has taken the news with equanimity. “I have to serve the organization and it does not matter where I am placed. I am happy”, he said to the Indian Cooperative.

Meanwhile, it is being reported that the office of the PS to Chairman on the ground floor of NCUI, is also set to welcome Ritesh Dey. The nameplate has already been changed. Dey is held as a simple man with little interest in political manoeuvring, claimed an NCUI official. “Sanghani does not know him much and he is a CE’s choice”, he revealed.

Apart from removing Setia as the PS to Chairman, the charge of the NCCE hostel and board divisions have been now handed over to Ramesh Kaul. Now, Setia has only Estate, L &M, GCP, and Congress cell divisions.

The portfolios of a few senior officials including Sandhya Kapoor and Ramesh Kaul of NCUI were also reshuffled. Sandhya Kapoor has been given the charge of Cooperative Education Fund (CEF) earlier under the charge of Ved Prakash Setia. In the reshuffling process, Ramesh Kaul was lucky.

Readers would recall that soon after Dileep Sanghani assumed the charge of NCUI as its Chairman, there was a major reshuffle leading to the rise of two women– Savitri Singh and Sandhya Kapur as the frontline sepoys of NCUI.

Savitri’s position remains untouched, said a source. Her clout in the field of international co-op affairs becomes important, especially in the light of impending ICA and ICOP elections, added the source.