Media Release
Bengaluru, Jul 31: Dr Anand Edward D’Souza has been unanimously elected as the new chairman of the Global Konkani Catholic fraternity known as Federation of Konkani Catholic Associations (FKCA), for the period 2017-2018. The election was held on July 29 at Konkan Bhavan, Mathikere, Bengaluru.
FKCA, which is the apex body of all Konkani Catholic Associations, was established to espouse the cause of the Konkani Catholics and to fight for safeguarding the interests of the community, their language, culture, as well as to represent the Konkani community with the government bodies and at political level. The organization has grown in leaps and bounds over the years, and at present has 34 Konkani associations, including many from foreign countries, affiliated to it.
Sunil Coutinho and Anup Saldanha were elected unanimously as the general secretary and treasurer respectively for the forthcoming term.
The following members were elected office-bearers of the FKCA (2017-2018):
Chairman - Dr Anand Edward D’Souza
Vice-chairman 1 - Harry D’Souza
Vice-chairman 2 - Richard Sequeira
General Secretary - Sunil Coutinho
Treasurer - Anup Saldanha
Joint secretary 1 - Clemence D’Silva
Joint secretary 2 - Anitha Gomes
Legal Advisor - Dilraj Sequeira
Cultural Secretary - Loveena Nazareth
Immediate Past Chairman - Arun Fernandes
The meeting was well attended by most of the member associations of FKCA. The election meeting began with prayer led by Aida D’Cunha.
Prior to electing the new body, in his outgoing address, during the FKCA AGM held on June 4, outgoing chairman Arun Fernandes, welcomed the gathering and gave a brief update of various activities conducted by FKCA under his tenure. The minutes of the previous year’s AGM and the accounts for the previous financial year 2015-16 were presented by outgoing general secretary Anup Saldanha and treasurer Sunil Coutinho respectively and the same were approved by the members present.
Presidents and representatives of various member associations recounted the activities of the FKCA over the past year and also mentioned about the activities their respective associations had conducted in the past year. The efforts and service of all the associations in keeping the Konkani culture and language in high esteem was appreciated by outgoing chairman Arun Fernandes.
The outgoing chairman Arun Fernandes concluded by expressing his desire that the FKCA should be able to reach out to the spiritual and social needs of every Konkani Catholic member in the society and this can be possible only if all the member associations join hands and take active part in the programmes chalked out by FKCA. He thanked the general secretary Anup Saldanha, the treasurer Sunil Countinho, all council members, all member association presidents and members and past chairmen for their support and encouragement given to him during his tenure as the chairman apart. Chairman Arun Fernandes dissolved the committee of 2016-17. Due to certain technical reasons the scheduled elections could not be conducted during the AGM held on June 4, hence the election was postponed to July 29.
Charles Gomes, a well known businessman from Bengaluru and someone who has initiated and backed up many social causes and welfare schemes for society was invited to be the election returning officer. Gomes read the election related bylaws of the association following which he read out the names of the nominees for the various posts. All the nominations were found to be in order and all the nominees were elected unopposed. The vacant positions, for which nominations were not received, were filled up by members elected by the general body.
In his welcome address, the new chairman Dr Anand Edward D’Souza, thanked his parents and family for imbibing Konkani into his heart and lifestyle. He also thanked SEZARI association for proposing his name to the esteemed post. Dr Anand mentioned that though he started from a humble beginning as an average student, his father’s advice to stay humble, had been a driving force in his life which inspired him to achieve his doctorate and other education laurels that he presently holds like MSW, LLB, MSc Applied Psychology.
The chairman Dr Anand once again thanked the past chairmen for their continuous efforts in nurturing the organization and solicited the support and active participation of all member associations to successfully accomplish, the propositions he has for FKCA, going forward. The chairman adjourned the meeting. Dinner was arranged for all the members by the outgoing committee of FKCA.