Itc, Agro Tech Rift Takes A Fresh Twist

The on-going controversy between ITC Ltd and Agro Tech Foods Ltd took a new turn today with a senior director, H A Dora, a management consultant, quitting the board on the grounds of serious differences with the management. Dora has been on the Agro Tech board for the past four years.

In a letter addressed to the chief executive officer of Agro Tech Foods -- with copies to Bruce Rhode, chairman of ConAgra Inc and others -- Dora said he was shocked by the reprehensible manner in which the managers of Agro Tech have abandoned the company's Mantralayam factory.

Describing the decision as a criminal and callous act of the management, Dora said he was considerably embarrassed as he was the company's interface with the Andhra Pradesh government, the regulatory authorities, various industry associations and other stakeholders.

 

He said the Mantralayam processing plant was abandoned on the pretext that the renewal of the lease and licence of the factory was now in the hands of ITC. However, he added, media reports say that ITC had communicated its extension of the licence for another term in August 2000.

It has also been reported that Agro Tech had assured the London Court of International Arbitration that it will maintain the status quo in the Mantralayam factory during the pendency of the arbitration proceedings.

"I am extremely upset since I have been kept totally in the dark about these important facts," Dora said. The company also failed to intimate the state government or other statutory authorities on its decision to abandon the factory.

All the managers at the factory fled the town on the night of September 25 leaving letters of transfer for nearly 40 workmen with the security guards. "This is tantamount to criminal dereliction of duty," Dora said.