The issue of bogus members, also called controlled members, is likely to be resolved in the annual general meeting of the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) to be held on Saturday.
The five-member scrutiny committee has completed its work and it will place findings at the meeting, said businessman Jehangir Cama, who is GCCI spokesman and member of the high-powered committee.
There are 3,141 members in GCCI, of which 1,022 fall under the suspect list, i.e. they are unlikely to prove their basic credentials to claim genuine membership. Of them, nearly 580 are facing cancellation of membership as they have failed to respond to GCCI communications to ascertain their locations, sources said.
The scrutiny committee has taken a note of these facts on bogus members but kept its report under wraps.
The annual general meeting will also be an interesting event to watch because a section of members might raise their eyebrows over the actions taken by the high-power committee headed by Nirma chairman Karsanbhai Patel.
Sources said the next team of office-bearers might be co-opted by the high-power committee instead of having a full-fledged elected body in view of the bogus members.
Controlled or bogus members are those whose subscription and other details are provided by certain groups without any documentary support. On getting membership, these groups control the members and maneuver them as per their own requirement by way of voice vote in GCCI meetings.
This was a major contention, which has led to a virtual revolt and resulted in mass resignations of 92 members in the executive panel.
This was compounded by the fake signature scam, where signatures of absent members were forged in the meeting attendance register and passed a resolution to amend the Chamber constitution ? much to the dislike of Karsanbhai and other committee members who had originally put the GCCI constitution in order.
Following this, the group led by Natwarlal Patel and Pravin Patel filed a criminal case against the chamber officials. A decision in the case is expected in the meeting on Saturday.