Following the annual general meeting and the discontent in channels market generated subsequently with Microsoft, North Bengal IT Trader's Association (NITO) has postponed its election dates from December 8 to December 11 latest aiming to elect a fresh set of office-bearers for the term.

"During the AGM we decided to hold the elections on December 8 but due to the controversy in the market with Microsoft, members opted to postpone the election date as they needed to address the Microsoft issue first. As a result, we have shifted the election dates to next week and have fixed the timeline on December 11 latest", said Sankar Dhar, spokesperson, NITO.

"The date will be officially announced and zeroed down in our next meeting on December 8", he added.

With the annual election nearing its D-day, the association has invited for nomination for the offices of president, vice-president, secretary, joint-secretary and treasurer. Until now, 2 names for the post of president have surfaced although the association is yet to receive official nominations for this category. Also, no nominations have come in until now for the post of secretary with Sankar Dhar featuring as the likely choice of the members.

However, the nomination process is on and NITO is expecting atleast 3 nominations to come in for every category before the election takes place. The present president of the association, Arun Jain will not be able to contest for a consecutive term as this is against the rule of the association.

Sources in NITO said that following the nominations, the association will go for open voting session while selecting the office bearers and unlike other prominent associations in the east, NITO doesn't follow the ‘delegation rule' instead opting for the "election procedure".

In its last AGM held on December 1 in Siliguri, NITO has reviewed its performance in this year besides deliberating over its financial performance.

"Last year, we finally came up with our own office for the association and organised the CIITA meet at international location (Bhutan). However, the most important feat was the last annual expo which was a success despite sponsorship problems", Dhar added.

Financially, the association is in a sound condition although last year NITO failed to convert its fair into good revenues. However, it did not incur any loss but its earnings both as membership fees and contributions as well as expo revenue remained stagnant.

Also, sources in Siliguri revealed that the association is planning to come up with its annual expo shortly.

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