Consumer Ministry and NCCF are locked in fight after the ministry sent a notice to the latter under Section 122 of MSCS 2002. A peeved Board consisting of cooperative leaders and led by Chairman Virendra Singh has challenged the government in court.
The notice accuses the Chairman and the Board of conducting meetings and taking decisions without the approval of a competent authority. In the ministry’s view, Managing Director is the competent authority.
The stern letter reminds the board that govt has 78 per cent equity in the NCCF and as such it cannot take decisions in the absence of the MD.
According to the NCCF sources, the issue pertains to the meetings of the NCCF Board on 21st January, 2014 which was conducted without the participation of the Managing Director S K Nag. The board decided on issues which did not suit Nag and his boss the former MD Parida and hence the notice under section 122 of MSCS Act, one of the Directors told Indian Cooperative on condition of anonymity.
An incensed Chairman rushed to the court amid rumour about the Ministry proposing to supercede the Board.
When Indian Cooperative confronted the chairman Virendra Singh he was evasive and did not comment much on the issue. He however, said Additional Secretary has assured me that there is no proposal to supercede the Board.
Indian Cooperative has learnt that a patch-up effort is on to defuse the tension between the two sides. In this context a meeting was called by the ministry on 27th March in which ostensibly a presentation on the growth trajectory of the NCCF was to be discussed. The Chairman was issued no formal invitation but he did participate in the meeting on the telephonic invitation of the Additional Secretary.
The matter has its genesis in MD’s style of functioning, NCCF sources claim. According to MSCS Act the Managing Director would act as CEO and devote time for the cooperative organization. But in reality Parida visited the NCCF office once in a blue moon and the incumbent MD Mr Nag has visited NCCF just once for a few hours in nearly two months.
But the Managing Directors one after the other never miss a chance of milking the organization- be it foreign tour or having personal staff on the Federation’s cost. The former MD visited abroad twice a year on the NCCF budget on an average and had employed a personal staff in Odisha at the NCCF’s cost, sources confided. In Delhi he had a number of drivers and personal staff serving him and his family at the organization’s cost.
But the 21st January meeting that sparked off the fight was due to the board’s refusal to promote some of his favourites. It is alleged that he recruited two lady staff as Lower Division Clerks but gave them 3 promotions at one go making them Field officers leading to widespread resentment among the general staff of the NCCF.
The board’s refusal to toe the MD’s line has ministry mandarins baying for the cooperators’ blood, said the sources. But cooperators for once have teamed up to take on the Ministry.