Amul row: Members up the ante against GCMMF chairman

Members approach Gujarat HC seeking to be made party in Chaudhary's plea against no-confidence motion

Members of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the maker and owner of Amul, have up the ante against federation chief Vipul Chaudhary by approaching the Gujarat High Court in support of the no-confidence motion against him.

The Ahmedabad District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Ltd, Bhavnagar District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd and Panchmahal District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Ltd, through their respective chairmen Mohan Bharwad, Mahnedra Panot and Jetha Ahir on Monday filed a petition to join as party to the plea filed by Chaudhary challenging the meeting of GCMMF board of directors to discuss no-confidence against him. Based on Chaudhary's plea the high court had last month stayed the meeting and later extended it till November 19.

Today, the three member unions argued before Justice A J Desai that they had sought no-confidence motion against Chaudhary and hence should be made party to the petition and heard before final decision on it. However, Chaudhary's lawyer P S Champaneri opposed the plea of the three member unions. The Judge has kept the matter for hearing on November 19 along with the main petition by Chaudhary.

Chaudhary is facing the heat by a majority of board members over mismanagement in Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union, as well as for meeting Congress vice-chairman Rahul Gandhi with an eye on National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) top job. Mehsana Union is also headed by Vipul Chaudhary. As many as 17 out of 14 board members of Rs  13,700 crore GCMMF had moved a no-confidence motion against Chaudhary and had called for a special meeting on October 26 to discuss no-trust motion.

In a strong worded letter to Mehsana Union vice-chairman, GCMMF took on Mehsana Union over number of issues including  big loans availed by the union and subsequent interest burden, offering cattlefeed worth Rs  22.50 crore to Maharashtra farmers free of cost without taking the approval of union's board and selling milk powder to private players at lower rates while over looking the federation's advice.

The Mehsana Union also came under GCMMF's attack for constant decline in milk procurement by the union and setting up 9 lakh liters per day milk processing plant, the union went ahead with establishment of 30 lakh liters per day of milk packaging plant at Daruheda plant with an investment of Rs  300 crore.