Calcutta, Dec. 22: The government today set up a separate election commission to conduct polls to the 6,000 co-operative societies in Bengal.

Participating in the discussions to amend the state co-operative societies act of 2006, co-operation minister Haider Aziz Safwi said in the Assembly: “The amendment will ensure timely, free and fair elections to the co-operative societies.”

The West Bengal Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2011, was passed by a voice vote. The co-operative election commission will be headed by an IAS officer, the minister said. Till now, the co-operation department used to conduct the polls.

Bengal earlier had only one election commission, which conducts municipal and panchayat polls. No other state has a separate poll panel for co-operatives, a co-operation department official said.

A senior Trinamul MLA said outside the House that during the tenure of the Left Front government, the Forward Bloc used to control most of the co-operatives.

“According to rules, elections to all co-operative societies will have to be held every three years. The co-operation ministry, which was held by the Bloc during the 34-year Left regime, never conducted elections on time. The polls were often a farce. Bloc leaders, who always held plum posts in the co-operative bodies, often bent rules to retain power. Our government has set up the election commission to make the polls more transparent,” the MLA said.

Bloc leader Naren Chatterjee, a former chairperson of the state agriculture-marketing board, denied the charges. “Earlier, a government officer used to be appointed returning officer for the polls. Now, an IAS officer will be appointed state co-operative election commissioner. I don’t find any major change,” he said.

Chatterjee said elections in some societies “could not be held on time because of court cases”. “But elections in majority of the societies were held on time.”

Sources in the co-operation department said farmers’ co-operative societies provided fertilisers at a subsidised rate. The primary agricultural credit co-operative societies provide soft loans to farmers.

Bodies like Confed and Benfed procure agricultural produce from farmers at a rate fixed by the government. There are also state and central co-operative banks.