PONDA: The dairy farmers attached to 170 societies that supply milk to Goa Dairy are anxious as to what decisions would be taken at the annual general body meeting scheduled on Sunday, to bring back the dairy on the track of profit making.
Around 16000 farmers supply milk to these 170 societies; they depend on Goa Dairy for their livelihood. Hence, for the farmers, it is important that the Goa Dairy, which has been facing losses since many years, is brought back on track.
The 12-member Board of Directors of the Goa Dairy is duly elected by the chairmen of 170 societies for a period of five years.
Of the 12 members of the BoD, seven were disqualified by the Registrar of Co-operative Societies on Friday; however, it is learnt that they can attend the Annual General Body as a chairmen of their respective societies and not as BoDs of Goa Dairy.
At the last AGM, the issue of Rs 5 crore loss suffered by the Goa Dairy cattle-feed plant was discussed and inquiry committee led by Dattaprasad Savordekar was formed.
After an inquiry, Savordekar complained to the Registrar of Co-operative Societies about mismanagement in purchases of cattle-feed and other raw material by Goa Dairy.
Following this, the Registrar of Co-operative Societies appointed CA and based on his report, he disqualified the seven directors on Friday for irregularities in affairs of Goa Dairy.
The Registrar of Co-operative Societies also appointed Damodar Moraskar as the administrator of Goa Dairy; however, Moraskar has not taken charge till the time of filing this report, since he has not received his appointment order till then.
The administrator was directed to place the Managing Director of Goa Dairy Navso Sawanth under suspension for irregularities and corrupt practices and terminate him accordingly. However, there was no action in this regard on Saturday by Administrator as he is yet to take charge of the Goa Dairy.
Meanwhile, it is learnt from sources that among the seven BoDs disqualified, some are preparing to approach the High Court challenging their disqualification.
As late as last week, the anti-corruption branch of the directorate of vigilance caught red-handed the assistant manager, Vinayak K Dharwadkar (53), of the Goa Dairy while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 from a contractor.
ACB officials said the complainant was being allegedly pressurised to pay the bribe to get a work order for the supply, installation and commissioning of a transformer, projection gear, LT panel, MCC and a push-button station in the plant costing over Rs 52 lakh.
