No sign of early election of GCMMF's new chairman

Vadodara, Mar 31 (UNI) Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), India's largest dairy co-operative and food products marketing body, is yet to choose a successor to its esteemed former chairman Dr Verghese Kurien.

The plum post is lying vacant since March 24 when the 12-member federation board unanimously accepted its founding chairman Dr Verghese Kurien's resignation and wrote a letter to the district collector requesting him to announce a date for election of the new chairman to the 3,600 crore federation.

Though most of the federation members were hopeful that the new chairman would be unanimously elected within a fortnight, the district authorities seem in no hurry to declare the election schedule and are maintaining a stoic silence over the matter.

Anand collector D G Jhalawadia told UNI today that he had received a letter from GCMMF Managing Director B M Vyas in connection with the decision of the board for election of a new chairman, but refused to comment as to when he planned to hold the election.

According to sources, the board's letter requesting the collector to hold an early election, had been put in the ''cold storage'' because of the serious infighting among board members over the chairmanship of the federation and other issues concerning member dairy unions.

The day-to-day activities of the federation are now being managed by Mr Vyas.

This is for the first time in the 33-year-old history of the country's largest dairy co-operative that a new man will step into Dr Kurien's shoes.

On March 20, Dr Kurien, hailed as the 'father of the white revolution' in the country, resigned as chairman of GCMMF after holding the post since the inception of the federation in 1973.

The octogenarian ''milkman of India,'' who was unanimously re-elected as chairman of the GCMMF only three months ago, tendered his resignation from the federation when 11 of the 12 board members threatened to move a no-confidence motion against him after the Gujarat High Court ruled against co-option of members on the management committee of the cooperative bodies in Gujarat.

Dr Kurien's continuance in the management committee of GCMMF as a co-opted member was challenged on this ground by Ahmedabad District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union (ADCMPU) Chairman Mohan Bharwad, a Kurien baitor and one of the members in the GCMMF board.

UNI SS GK JN HT1812