Court nod for no-confidence move against GCMMF chief

The Gujarat High Court has given board members of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation the go-ahead for moving a no-confidence motion against Chairman Vipul Chaudhary.

The order was issued by a single judge Bench on Monday.

However, Chaudhary has been given time till January 11 to challenge the decision in a higher court.

Of the 17 board members of the cooperative, which markets the Amul brand of milk products, 14 have served a no-confidence motion against the Chairman.

The move was initially stayed by the High Court.

About 1,100 village-level milk cooperative societies of the Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union (Dudhsagar Dairy) joined as respondents in the petition filed against Chaudhary.

“This clearly indicates mounting tension between the cooperative unions in Gujarat. Politicisation of milk cooperatives is detrimental to the interest of farmers and members of the Federation, that too when our milk producers are venturing into the US for manufacturing,” said Ghanshyambhai Amin, Vice-President of National Cooperative Union of India.

GCMMF board members’ no-confidence move comes after Chaudhary shared the dais with Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar a few months ago.

It was seen as an attempt to replace Amrita Patel as Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board after her retirement.

Soon, allegations of financial mismanagement at the Mehsana dairy headed by Chaudhary surfaced.

“Politicisation of milk cooperatives is affecting the Amul brand and also drawing attention away from key issues of rising prices and production costs,” said Ramsinh Parmar, Chairman of Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd (Amul Dairy) in Anand.

The cooperative, with a turnover of Rs 14,000 crore for 2012-13, procures 13 million litres of milk daily.

Around 16, 914 village milk co-operative societies from the 17-member milk producing unions spread across 24 districts in Gujarat are affiliated to the Federation, involving around 3-4 million milk producers.