Amrita Patel is IRMA interim chief

Amrita Patel, chairperson of National Dairy Development Board, and one-time protégé of Verghese Kurien has been appointed as interim chairman of Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) on Thursday after the board members unanimously accepted Kurien's resignation as chairman of IRMA.

Briefing the media at Anand, V Ramchandaran, IRMA board member and spokesperson of IRMA, said, "The meeting began with a letter from Dr Kurien informing his resignation from the board of governors. The Board has accepted Dr Kurien's resignation and expressed appreciation for the guidance provided by him for a period of over 25 years to IRMA."

With the office of chairman of IRMA falling vacant the board of directors appointed an interim chairman till the next regular chairman of IRMA was appointed.

On Thursday, the board of directors had unanimously appointed Amrita Patel as interim chairman of IRMA.

However Ramchandaran made it clear that Amrita Patel had informed the board of directors that she doesn't want to be a regular chairman.

When a section of media asked Amrita Patel the reason to decline as regular chairman of IRMA, she said, "I have my hands full".

Informing the media, Ramchandaran said that according to the rules of IRMA, a search committee of board of directors has to be formed to recommend a panel of names for the probable next regular chairman of IRMA. The committee has a time frame of one month to recommend the names.

He further said, "The search committee for the chairmanship will also appoint the director of IRMA."

The board had also appointed a three member search committee that has Amrita Patel, Bakul Dholakia and Vijay Mahajan as members. The committee can co-opt any members if necessary.

The board has also appointed Nileema Khaitan as interim acting director of IRMA with immediate effect thus discharging the present acting director L K Vaswani of IRMA.

However, Ramchandaran made it clear that even Nileema Khatain has expressed her decision that she doesn't want to be a regular director of IRMA.

Ramchandaran said that the reason of appointing Nileema Khatain as interim director was taken as some of the directors are involved in court cases and the board wants the court matters to be solved at its earliest. The process of selection of appointment of regular director will be completed in 90 days.

When asked to L K Vaswani about his reaction on his removal from the post of acting director, he said, "It's for the board to decide about who will be the director and moreover I will have more time to spend on my students and do research."

Three board members - Hasmukh Shah, Father Abraham and Vishwa Vallabh were absent during the board meeting. While eleven board members were present including Bakul Dholakia.

"IRMA will have its next board meeting in the first week of August 2006," informed Ramchandaran. He further said in the next meeting the regular chairman of IRMA will be decided. On Thursday, the IRMA board also passed the 2006-07 budgets worth Rs 7 crore.