Members of India's largest milk producer the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), makers and owners of brand Amul, today passed no-confidence motion against its chairman Vipul Chaudhary, to safeguard interest of the Rs 13,700 crore federation.
The board of directors had got the green signal from a division bench of Gujarat High Court to discuss the no-confidence motion against Chaudhary. The court had also restricted implementation on any decision on no-confidence motion without its order.
The division bench had modified the order of the single bench that had stayed the no-trust meeting and ruled that federation can convene the meeting to discuss no-trust motion against Chaudhary, on appeal against single judge order by GCMMF and four other member unions.
Today's no-trust motion was passed by majority of members during a requisition meeting of the board members held today at GCMMF headquarters in Anand. As many as 13 out of 16 voting members voted in favour of the no-confidence motion, sources close to the development said.
Chaudhary who also represents Mehsana Union, and Ramsinh Parmar of Kheda dairy union walked out of the proceeding when the motion was table, while representative of Junagadh union was absent for the meeting, they said.
Those supporting the no-confidence motion against Chaudhary included member unions of districts Ahmedabad, Banaskantha, Valsad, Surat, Vadodara, Panchmahal, Sabarkantha, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar, Surendranagar, Rajkot and Kutch.
According to these members, the no-trust motion was brought because the board members were suspicious of Chaudhary's functioning and suspected that his way of administration was not in interest of the federation. They further said that motion was need to safeguard the interest of three million milk producers of Gujarat.
The board members have pass the resolution and will now be placing it before the Gujarat High Court which had earlier this week vacated the stay on discussing no-confidence motion against Chaudhary. The federation will have to wait for High Court's order before the resolution could be implemented.
Besides the no-confidence motion from member unions, GCMMF chairman Vipul Chaudhary is also facing charges of corruption from members of the Mehsana District Milk Producers Union Ltd (MDMPUL), which is also headed by him.
Gujarat High Court last week directed the state government to inquire the allegation of corruption against Chaudhary and his close aides in Mehsana Union while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Baldev Chaudhary and Mangal Patel members of the MDMPUL.
Chaudhary had to face the heat of 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.
The Mehsana Union under Chaudhary's command also came under GCMMF's criticism for constant decline in milk procurement by the union and setting up 9 lakh liters per day milk processing plant. Despite this the union further went ahead with setting up of 30 lakh liters per day of milk packaging plant at Daruheda (Haryana) plant with an investment of Rs. 300 crore.
