Odisha heads for elections this February

After completion of the success of its annual expo last year and the announcement of the forthcoming cricket match on a grandeur scale, IT Association of Odisha is gearing up for its elections which is supposed to be held sometime during February this year.

The association will be finalising the exact date for the election in its next meeting after finalising the cricket match schedule and programme.

"Office bearers and executive committee members have a 2 year tenure and this will remain the same for this year's election too. After the meeting we will be sending out communications to members over the election and will seek nominations", said Dayananda Ratho, secretary, ITAO.

The association is also keen to introduce fresh faces in the executive committee and the reports are on that the present president might not continue in the same role.

ITAO has nomination priority policy in place for the elections. Primarily, aspiring candidates for various portfolios of office bearers are made known to the members at first subject to unanimous acceptance. In case, there is a problem with the procedure, a full fledged election takes place where members vote the candidates to power. However, since the last 2 terms, the association has followed the primary methodology.

"Candidates aspiring for the office bearer portfolios have to be life members of the association and should have on-hand experience in handling association affairs. We primarily place the fresher candidates in the executive committee at first from where they can later compete in elections", Ratho said.

Presently ITAO has over 100 members of which Ratho said that around 50 are active members and last year, the association has been actively addressing trade issues in Odisha.

The local market, however, is seemingly damp with both retail and the distribution segment hit by credit policies, price undercutting and some reportedly unethical trading practices. Some members in the association had suggested to obtain the cheque payments first before delivering the stocks which could effectively control the credit issues, but it didn't go well with some office bearers in ITAO.

However, ITAO has been actively participating in deliberations of CIITA and has been contributing majorly to its success.