IFFCO celebrated its 43rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) with a collegium of freshly-elected delegates and a newly elected Board with the new Chairman and Vice-President at the NCUI Auditorium in N Delhi on Thursday.
There was a sense of euphoria all around and more than the subject-matter on the agenda, greeting each other was what captured the participants’ attention. The new Chairman Balvinder Singh Nakai addressed the assembly followed by the Managing Director U S Awsthi. A vote of thanks was moved by the Vice-Chairman N P Patel.
While Nakai thanked everyone for choosing him as Chairman, Mr Awasthi focused on the issue of women participation in cooperatives in general and in the IFFCO in particular. But before he announced to the thunderous applause of delegates that the Indian nation will choose its government tomorrow but the IFFCO has chosen its own already today.
Dwelling upon the issue of women participation Mr Awasthi reminded the delegates that besides household chores, 75% of agricultural errands are run by the women. He exhorted them to explore the possibilities of involving them more and more in their respective areas. “We have tried to call them as special invitees in the RGB but the onus of encouraging their participation lies on your shoulders’, he added.
But the IFFCO MD was sore about the government apathy towards arrears. ”We have to take Rs 5000 crore since last year but government does not look sufficiently eager. This is plain injustice as reduced to the basics we are a commercial organization and we cannot survive this kind of indifference. The Centre should cut its cloth according to its size and the regime of subsidies should be limited to the extent the government can manage”, Awasthi added.
“The new government should be careful and promise only what it can deliver on ”, Awasthi cautioned. Economy is passing through a bad phase as the gap between what you earn and what you spend is increasing day by day. This has affected the IFFCO as much as it has other commercial organizations. Our decision to stand by farmers and not raise fertilizer prices when the government wanted us to cost us Rs 300 crore, he added.
He urged the new delegates to remain vigilant towards the soil-quality of their lands. “There is an impending fear of Al Nino and we should sow plants which are less dependent on rain-fall. Also, the maximum share of dealers’ margin should go to the cooperative societies”, he added.
The IFFCO MD also felicitated Amer Abdel-Wahab Al-Majali, Chairman of JIFCO. IFFCO and Jordan Phosphates Mines Company Ltd (JPMC), Jordan had formed a Limited Liability Joint Venture Company, namely Jordan India Fertiliser Company (JIFCO) in 2008 in Amman and the venture is about to produce phosphoric acid.
The occasion was marked by a competition among different states to felicitate the new Board and the clear winner was Rajasthan which gave the Board members the traditional Pagri to wear and declared in a lighter vein that the IFFCO board belonged to Mewad.The RGB members from Tamil Nadu, West Bengal Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Telangan were active honouring the new Board.
The delegates put forth their point of view covering various things such as a visit to Jordon , increasing marginal money to more training centres , setting up marketing offices in the newly created state of Telangana and having a polybag factory.
The Board heard them out patiently and sought a copy of complaints from Suraj Bhan Karwaria when he pointed out that all is not well with the Phulpur unit. Karwaria underlined that Awasthi’s good intentions are being torpedoed by the local IFFCO officials.
