By Jyostna Bhatnagar & Sandip Das
Rupinder Singh Sodhi, managing director (MD) of India’s largest dairy cooperative — Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCCMF) which markets products under the Amul brand name, on Monday was ousted from his post which he had held since June 2010.
Sodhi has been replaced by Jayen Mehta, chief operating officer of GCMMF. Sources said while Mehta has been given the charge of MD of the dairy federation as an interim arrangement, a new MD will be announced within the next few weeks.
Mehta has been associated with Amul for the last 31 years. He has served as the federation’s brand manager, group product manager and general manager, marketing, in his three-decade long career.
A terse letter jointly signed by GCMMF chairman Shamalbhai Patel and vice-chairman Valambhai Humbal stated: “The federation has decided to terminate the services of RS Sodhi wth immediate effect.”
The decision was taken at the GCMMF board meeting held at Gandhinagar earlier on Monday.
Sources also said Sodhi’s office has been sealed following his resignation.
The cooperative dairy sector in Gujarat has been a hotbed of politics since a long time. Some months ago, former GCMMF chairman Vipul Chaudhary was arrested for his alleged role in the controversial `750-crore fodder scam at the Dudhsagar Dairy Co-operative in Mehsana.
Home minister Amit Shah, who holds the charge of the cooperative sector, recently indicated the government’s intention to merge Amul with the five other dairy cooperatives in Gujarat under one banner.
Sodhi had joined Amul as a senior sales officer in 1982 after doing his agri management course from the renowned Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) and rose up the ranks. During 2000-2004, he served as its general manager (marketing) before taking over as its MD in 2010.
He was on extension for the last two years.
Last July, Sodhi, a poster boy for the cooperative sector, was elected to the powerful Indian Dairy Federation.
Text messages and repeated calls to Sodhi and Jayen Mehtra did not elicit any responses.
However, Sodhi told PTI that he has been on extension and has resigned.
During Sodhi’s tenure, GCMMF reported a turnover of `61,000 crore in 2021-22, an increase of more than 18% from the previous year.
In the last fiscal, 18 district cooperative unions which operate under GCMMF on an average procured 26.3 million litre milk daily from more than 3.6 million farmers, an increase of more than 7% than the previous year. This was because of higher sales reported on the back of products such as butter, cheese, milk, curd, ice creams and other dairy products.
According to the National Dairy Development Board, Amul has around 40% share in the milk procurement carried out by all the 28 state level dairy federations.
Currently, GCMMF is ranked the eighth-biggest dairy organisation in the world.
GCMMF, which follows a three-tier cooperative structure — village, district and state federation — has operations in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Odisha. However, around 70% of the total milk procurement by GCMMF is contributed by the farmers of Gujarat.
Amul supplies around 3 million litres of milk in Delhi-NCR daily.