Demand with Govt to stop election procedure, postpone BoD elections to save Goa Dairy.
They even threaten to approach Court if their grievances are not heard
Government must first conduct an inquiry into various scams in Goa Dairy and then only hold BoD Election.
Goemkarponn desk
PONDA: The Goa Dairy farmers have demanded an inquiry into the elections of the Board of Directors, which they feel are illegal and without following any procedure.
Committee Members Jayant Desai, Ramesh Naik, and other farmers addressing the media said Goa Dairy elections will be held without the following procedure and, therefore, illegal.
The farmers demanded to stop the election procedure and postpone the Goa Dairy elections scheduled on 19 June to Save the Goa Dairy. They even threatened to approach Court if their grievances were not heard.
The farmers also demanded investigating of various scams in Goa Dairy and recovering the losses from BoDs responsible for it. The different reasons are cited by farmers to postpone elections.
Jayant Desai said RCS has failed to follow the procedure for holding the Goa Dairy election. Instead of sending notices to 173 society members of Goa Dairy, it directly published an advertisement about the election procedure in only one newspaper that many of the Society Members have not read. So many members could not participate or were able to fill out the nomination forms and therefore demanded that RCS and the Government of Goa stop the election procedure.
Secondly, for the past three and half years, the Goa Dairy was run by Administrators after the BoD of Goa Dairy elected in 2017 was dissolved in 2019 by RCS after conducting its inquiry report found mismanagement in the purchase of raw material and machinery of Goa Dairy. Farmers have no idea that Administrator decisions are right or wrong.
He said AGM do not know whether Goa Dairy is in profit or losses as the three financial years report for the year 2018-19, 20-21 and 21-22 presented by Goa Dairy Administration is not approved yet.
However, as per sources, they expect a loss of Rs 6 Crore to Goa Dairy, and therefore Government should conduct present a true financial picture before AGM and then only hand over Goa Dairy Administration to the new Board by holding a BoD election.
The second reason for which the farmers oppose holding BoD Election is that around ten former BoD members who were disqualified by RCS has challenged it in Court and even got Court approval to contest the BoD election subject to the condition that in case they are elected, they will not be able to reconstitute the Goa Dairy Board. Jayant Desai said this means that if they got reelected on BoD, they would not be able to form Goa Dairy Board until the final decision of Court and thus again Government would appoint Administrator, which means Goa Dairy no point in holding an election as farmer appointed BoDs cant run its affairs and so election need to be postponed.
Another farmer Ramesh Naik said Government need to probe all scams of Goa Dairy and thereafter conduct BoD elections.
He pointed out that the RCS appointed auditor had recommended recovering Rs 78 lakh loss from the former Board of Directors. Another official recommended recovering Rs 1.36 Crore loss from the former Board of Directors. The concerned former BoDs have challenged in both cases, and the matter is pending in Court. Further, the former BoDs decision was responsible for depositing Rs 8 crore to deposit with PMC Bank. This money was sanctioned to Goa Dairy by NDDB; however, PMC is now deposited with another Bank, and Dairy is not in a position to utilize it at present for development projects. Further, Goa Dairy is failed to clear cess duty to Government since 2007, which is now accumulated to a huge amount.
He demanded that the Government conduct a probe into all issues, fix the responsibility on the responsible person, recover the Goa Dairy money, and only then hold an election and hand over charge to the new Goa Dairy Board.
It may be recalled that RCS has initiated the Goa Dairy BoD Election procedure, which is scheduled to happen on 19 June. After scrutiny, around 38 Candidates are on the list. For the past three and half years Administrator has been looking after the affairs of Goa Dairy, following the seven members of BoD elected in 2017 were disqualified by RCS along with some former BoDS for mismanagement in 2019. The disqualified BoDs challenged the RCS decision in Court, which is subjudice. However, Court gave conditional approval to contest BoD election scheduled on 19 June on the condition that if they got elected, they cant claim to reconstitute Board until Court gave its final decision.
