HC stays meet on motion against GCMMF chief

Vipul Chaudhary is facing the heat for mismanagement in Mehsana union, meeting Rahul Gandhi with an eye on NDDB top job

In a relief to Vipul Chaudhary, chairman, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the high court (HC) here on Friday stayed a meeting requisitioned by its board of directors to discuss a no-confidence motion against him.

Chaudhary had petitioned the HC, arguing there was no provision in the Gujarat Cooperatives Act or in the bylaws of the GCMMF for a no-confidence motion against a chairman. His lawyer, B B Naik, further argued the managing director of GCMMF was not authorised to call the special meeting.

Counsels for GCMMF and the state government both opposed Chaudhary's petition. Judge C L Soni, after hearing the parties, stayed the said meeting till the next hearing on November 11. GCMMF, based at Anand, owns and markets the Amul brand of milk and milk products. On Thursday, 14 of the 17 board members of the Rs 13,700-crore GCMMF had moved a no-confidence motion against Chaudhary and had called for a special meeting on Saturday to discuss it.

Sources in the federation opposed to him cite mismanagement at Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union, popularly known as Dudhsagar Dairy, also headed by Chaudhary, as the prime reason. In a strong worded letter to the Mehsana union vice-chairman, the Federation ticked it off on a number of issues.

These included large loans taken by the union and the interest burden, offering cattlefeed worth Rs 22.5 crore to Maharashtra farmers free of cost without taking the approval of the union's board and selling milk powder to private entities at lower rates while overlooking the federation's advice. The Mehsana union also came under GCMMF's attack for what the latter said was a constant decline in milk procurement.

And two other contentious issues, setting up of a 900,000-litre a day milk processing plant and establishment of a three-million litre a day milk packaging plant.

Those monitoring the developments see political overtones in the controversy. Chaudhary had recently been seen accompanying Congress party vice-president Rahul Gandhi during the latter’s visit here. Many saw in this Chaudhary’s aspiration to be chairman of the National Dairy Development Board.

This, according to sources, might have led to problems for him within the federation, where a majority of directors are backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which also runs the state government.