Schedule to prepare electoral roll for Gokul election declared

Kolhapur: District cooperative election officer Rajkumar Patil has declared the schedule for preparing electoral rolls for the five-yearly election of the Kolhapur Zilla Cooperative Milk Dairy, popularly known as Gokul dairy, on Monday.

The primary milk societies are entitled to vote to elect directors of the governing body of the district cooperative. One representative from each society is authorised to cast a vote on their behalf.

There are roughly 5,300 such societies. There were objections to over 1,300 of them for not fulfilling the criteria of milk supply. These 1,300 societies are currently undergoing a hearing before a designated officer, and they will either be declared eligible or ineligible.

The Bombay HC's Kolhapur bench has asked the officer to finish the hearing and declare eligibility in 80 days. The SC has asked the election authority to hold election in 90 days.

Meanwhile, as part of the administrative process, the election authority has asked tehsil-level officers to write to primary milk societies by June 1, informing them about the preparation of the electoral roll. Thereafter, the societies have to hold their meetings and decide their representative and submit the resolution passed to the tehsil-level officer by July 1.