PONDA: Goa Dairy Chairman Baburao Fatto Desai was ousted in a no-confidence motion that was put to vote by show of hands at a special meeting, on Wednesday.
The Goa Dairy has 12 directors, of whom nine voted in favour of the motion, one voted against it, one abstained from voting and one failed to turn up for the meeting.
Those voted in favour of the motion are Madhav Sahakari, Vithoba Desai, Shrikant Naik, Dhanjay Desai, Gurudas Parab, Rajendra Sawal, Ulhas Sinari, Naresh Malik and Shivand Pednekar.
The ousted chairman Desai had refused to step down in May this year even after losing the confidence of majority of the directors.
It may be recalled that in May this year, a no confidence motion was brought against Desai, but it was not put to vote then, because the Assistant Registrar of Co-Operative Societies, Anil Desai, who presided over the meeting had rejected the motion, on the ground that no no-trust motion can be brought against the chairman before he completes two years in office — the assistant registrar was relying on a Supreme Court judgement submitted by Fatto Desai.
After the motion was rejected, the aggrieved group of nine directors moved the High Court of Bombay at Goa for a direction to the assistant registrar to put the no-trust motion to vote. On hearing the parties, the High Court directed the registrar to hold a meeting of Goa Dairy directors to put the no-trust motion to vote.
When asked by reporters, in the light of Wednesday’s vote, why he had rejected the no-trust motion in May, Assistant Registrar Anil Desai said that his intention was only honour the Supreme Court ruling in such matters.
When sought for his comments on Wednesday’s vote, Fotto Desai said he would seek legal advice on whether to challenge the motion or not. He also denied that during his tenure as chairman, Goa Dairy had suffered losses; however, he agreed that to some extent it has been affected by SUMUL entry.
However, the nine directors who ousted Fotto Desai, said during his eight-month tenure as chairman, the local dairy suffered many setbacks, especially in the milk procurement sector.
