Dholakia to look for Kurien's replacement

The man who was recently informed that he was no longer a member on the board of the Institute of Rural Management-Anand (IRMA) was, ironically, the one entrusted today with the task of finding a replacement for the person who had ordered him out.

Bakul Dholakia, director of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA) will head a three-member committee created at today's crucial board meeting of IRMA to find a successor to Vergese Kurien, IRMA chairman for the past 17 years.

What has also come as a blow to the Kurien lobby is that the committee has Amrita Patel, chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), as one of its members. Patel and Kurien are at loggerheads over several issues related to the dairy sector.

Kurien, who did not turn up for the meeting, could not be contacted for comments throughout the day.

The meeting took place after an order by the Civil Court in Anand where Kurien had filed a petition yesterday. This morning, the court ordered a status quo on the earlier orders issued by the Joint Commissioner of Charity (Vadodara Division), paving the way for the scheduled board meeting to be held.

Dholakia and four others, who had been told earlier by Kurien that they had ceased to be members of the IRMA board, attended the meeting.

The Civil Court order also helped maintain the February order of the Assistant Charity Commissioner, Anand, that had questioned Kurien's long tenure.

Only seven of the 15 board members turned up for the meeting. Neelima Khetan, chief executive officer of Udaipur-based NGO Seva Mandir, chaired the meeting.

She said after the meeting: "We have created a three-member sub committee to find out a replacement for Kurien as Chairman of IRMA and the committee has to do that at the earliest. It is a matter of regret that such a wrong, like someone illegally holding the coveted post of chairman of a premier educational institute illegally for 17 years, could not be set right earlier by the board.

"We have conducted the meeting as per the law after seeking advice from our lawyers. In this meeting, we have accepted the ruling of the Assistant Charity Commissioner, Anand. The committee is free to suggest any name, including that of Kurien for the post of chairman. The committee will give its report in 15 days."

Apart from Khetan, Dholakia and Patel, others who attended the meeting were, Vijay Mahajan, managing director of Basix, a Hyderabad-based micro-finance organisation, V Ramchandran, head of Centre for Development Management, Hasmukh Shah, chairman of National Institute of Design and K Prathap Reddy, director of IRMA.

Prominent board members who abstained were BM Vyas, managing director of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) and two senior faculty members Vishva Ballabh and Haribandhu Panda, who reportedly belong to the Kurien lobby.