ICA General Assembly kicks off

You would not find cooperators of even less considerable standing in India these days. They all have gone to attend the General Assembly of International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) in Antalya, Turkey, planned for 4 days starting 9th of November.

Most of the prominent Indian cooperators counting eighty have headed for Turkey, the most notable exception is IFFCO Dr U S Awasthi. They are from IFFCO, Kribcho, NAFSCOB, IFFDC, Delhi State Consumer Federation and others.

There is no delegate from Sahakar Bharati – the cooperative wing of the right-wing organization presently in power in the country. In a massage to Indian Cooperative Sahakar Bharati Chief Satish Marathe replied” Sahakar Bharati is not a member of ICA. Hence I am not going to Turkey.”

IFFCO MD who did not go to General Assembly told Indian Cooperative “that since IFFCO Board members are already going I thought I should focus on earnings as ultimately what matters in a cooperative is its financial viability.”

Fishcopfed MD B K Mishra did not go and his explanation was “I was offered ticket by the fisheries body but since my federation has gone into the red technically though not actually, my visit would have given wrong signals.”

The cost of the ticket is roughly 50-60 thousand and stay for four days usually costs 500 Euros. The entire Boards of IFFCO and Kribhco have gone funded by the federations but 10 members from NAFSCOB have self-financed their trips, informed MD B Subramaniyam.

From NCUI Vice-President G H Amin and Chief Executive Dr Dinesh have gone. NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav has also gone but he represents Kribhco as he chairs the organization.

The ICA General Body meeting is going to be eventful as Dame Pauline will hand over to a new President, the election for which will take place on 13th November.

India has about 25 votes and according to a source most votes from India are likely to be cast in favour of Monique Leroux. The total number of votes is 913 (Africa-81, America-287, AP- 283 and Europe-261).

The four candidates in the race are Monique Leroux from Canada, Jean Louis Bancel from France, Ariel Guarco from Argentina and Euides De Freitas Aquino from Brazil.