TRIFED: Rathwa had his way; Ministry bows to Board decision

The dispute going on between the TRIFED Chairman Ramsinh Rathwa and Managing Director R Jaya has come to an end with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs finally bowing to the board decision.

Replacing Jaya, the Ministry has given the additional charge to Joint Secretary Dr Naval Jit Kapoor as the MD of Trifed till the appointment of a regular MD.

The letter of Kapoor’s appointment was released on Wednesday. Earlier, on 22nd July 2022, the Trifed Chairman wrote a letter to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs with regard to removal and relieving of R. Jaya (IAS) from the charge of Trifed MD and as per the provision under MSCS Act, Trifed Executive Director Anupam Trivedi had been given the additional charge of MD, until a regular appointment of MD.

The Trifed Chairman Rathwa also met the Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah in this regard and apprised him of the conflict and sought his intervention in the matter.

Readers would recall that in a queer turn of events, the Board unanimously removed Jaya citing a variety of reasons in the board meeting held on 6th June 2022, but soon after the Ministry reappoints the same MD. This forced the TRIFED Chairman Ramsinh Rathwa to rush to meet Union Minister Amit Shah.

R. Jaya was appointed as the Managing Director of Trifed this year in January. The board unanimously passed the agenda for removing R Jaya from her services who had an additional charge of Trifed but did not cooperate in implementing the decisions taken by the board of directors.

There is a long list of grievances against the MD. Talking to Indian Cooperative the TRIFED Chairman, who had been five times BJP MP from Gujarat said “The MD R.Jaya is arbitrarily taking decisions without taking the board into confidence. In my view she is not working adequately for the development of the tribal community. Her attitude of not taking the Board decisions seriously is also not proper” added Rathwa.

Among other things, MD’s reluctance to use funds for the betterment of tribal people has disturbed Rathwa the most as he said for the socio-economic development of tribal people, the Central Government is eager to give funds to Trifed, but the MD is writing letters to the government seeking to reduce the fund quota.

“We told her that if you don’t have a vision on how to strengthen this sector; come to us, we will tell you how to use the fund for tribal community development”, Rathwa said.

“Earlier, the Central government has sanctioned Rs 150 crore for the North Eastern Region, we suggested she should have a conversation with the MPs of the North Eastern Region to know the issues of their respective states, but she rejected saying why should we talk to them?” said Rathwa.

Meanwhile, several Deputy Managers, Regional Managers and other junior level employees gave their resignation after the appointment of R Jaya.